The Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health envisions a future where children, young adults, and families will have improved quality of life and a productive future as a result of systems that promote optimal behavioral health.

The Center of Excellence facilitates a continuous cycle that builds knowledge, improves processes and programs, and informs policy supporting an effective system of care so that all people experiencing or at-risk for behavioral health challenges can have improved quality of life and thrive.

To support development of behavioral health systems, the center

• Provides thought leadership with a systems perspective and an equity lens
• Supports translation of evidence-driven models into practice
• Conducts objective research and policy analysis focused on financing structures and service delivery opportunities
• Evaluates program implementation
• Facilitates strategic planning
• Develops the state’s behavioral health workforce capacity.

Since 2012 the Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health at the Georgia Health Policy Center has been at the forefront of efforts to improve behavioral health systems of care by developing a skilled workforce, harnessing the power of data for decision-making, and conducting innovative research.

We are steadfastly focused on fulfilling our vision that all people experiencing or at-risk for behavioral health challenges can have improved quality of life and a productive future when systems effectively promote optimal behavioral health.

We come to work each day in service to children, their families, and behavioral health partners and with a commitment to use our expertise to help build effective and responsive child-serving systems.

Core to this service is a commitment to continuous learning and genuine personal relationships. This is something that I value personally in terms of professional growth, for our staff, and with all of the people that we work with. I see continuous learning and genuine personal relationships as deeply intertwined. We learn objectively from the data, but also importantly from each other and from the experiences of our partners across the system of care and in the community. It is my hope that our partners see this, experience this, and it is a part of the reason why they keep coming back to work with us.

Please explore our website to learn more about the scope of our work and reach out to discuss opportunities for working together.

Ann M. DiGirolamo

The Center of Excellence team includes professionals with backgrounds in child psychology, social work, counseling, nonprofit leadership, public policy, and public health.

The team has community-based experience in direct clinical practice, systems and community-based evaluation, program implementation, strategic planning, data and policy analysis, and workforce development. The Center of Excellence also taps into the expertise of the staff at the Georgia Health Policy Center and faculty at Georgia State University and other universities, including those in psychology, social work, education, nursing, data science, child development, criminal justice, economics, and policy studies. This gives our clients a robust team with deep expertise that recognizes the value of multidisciplinary problem-solving.

Meet our full team here!