October 10, 2024 Written by Lauren Guess
Dr. Alisha Polastri has been named director of research at Youth Villages, a national children’s mental and behavioral health nonprofit that serves tens of thousands of children and families each year.
Mr. Polastri previously served as director of research and evaluation at Think: Kids, a psychiatry program at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, a provider of an evidence-based Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) approach . In that role, she developed implementation and evaluation protocols for CPS implementation and led research to establish rigorous evidence for the CPS approach.
Since 2014, Dr. Polastri has been actively collaborating with the Youth Village, leading important research projects and serving on the organization’s Program Development Advisory Board. She also played a key role in the application of CPS in youth villages.
Sarah Hurley, Managing Director of Data Science at Youth Villages said: “Her knowledge and expertise in mental and behavioral health research are key to our efforts to continue to build rigorous evidence on the effectiveness of our program models and contribute new knowledge to the field. It will be.”
As Principal Investigator, Mr. Polastri will lead the vision and strategy for third-party evaluation of the program, develop research partnerships with public and private institutions, and conduct research to build knowledge in the areas of child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice. Focus on managing. .
“Having worked with members of the Youth Village clinical services and research teams for many years, I have always been impressed by the dedication of the staff and the rigor of the work being done,” Polastri said. “In my role, I will seek to leverage the skills of leading research teams across the country to answer the most important questions about how we can best support young people and their families.”
Polastri completed his undergraduate studies at Duke University and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Clark University. She also completed her doctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and South Shore Mental Health (now Aspire Health Alliance) in Quincy, Massachusetts.
