Joanne Nicholson, PhD
Professor of the Practice, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
Joanne Nicholson, PhD is a clinical and research psychologist, and Professor of the Practice at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. She is an adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) where she directed the Child and Family Research Core of the UMMS Center for Mental Health Services Research. Dr. Nicholson has established an active program of research on parents with mental illnesses and their families, in partnership with people in recovery. Her team is translating research findings into technology-based applications for parents with mental illness, and evaluating interventions for families, including the pilot Family Options intervention. She is the lead author of Parenting Well When You’re Depressed. Dr. Nicholson’s research interests also include the study of collaborations, knowledge exchange, and the impact of web-based interventions. Dr. Nicholson has received funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Alliance for Mental Illness Research Institute, private foundations, and industry sources. In 2006, Dr. Nicholson received the Armin Loeb Award from the U.S. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association for her significant career contribution to research in psychiatric rehabilitation. She has been a W.T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow and a NIDRR Switzer Distinguished Research Fellow. She is the 2010 recipient of the UMMS Women’s Faculty Committee Outstanding Community Service Award, and the 2011 recipient of the Katharine F. Erskine Award for Women in Medicine and Science.
Dr. Nicholson is co-editor of Parental Psychiatric Disorder, 3rd ed., which received the President’s Choice Book Award from the British Medical Association in 2016. She has written more than 100 publications and has been investigator on over 50 research grants and contracts. In 2016, she received an Ambassador Award from the Australian Children of Parents with a Mental Illness Initiative for her international contributions to the field. Dr. Nicholson is Co-PI on the National Research Center on Parents with Disabilities and their Families funded by NIDILRR in October 2016 for 5 years. She is the research lead on the PCORI-funded P2P award for the Into the Light Research Collaborative implemented by colleagues at Postpartum Progress, Inc.