Julie Gass

Julie Gass, Ph.D., is a Clinical Research Psychologist at the VA Western New York Healthcare System in Buffalo, NY. She is an investigator at the Center for Integrated Healthcare (CIH), which is a part of the VA's Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) program. CIH focuses on the development, dissemination, and implementation of research focused on primary care-mental health integration (PC-MHI) and integrated care services within VA. Dr. Gass maintains a part-time clinic in PC-MHI at the Buffalo, NY VAMC. Dr. Gass earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo in 2016 after completing her predoctoral internship at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. She then completed a three-year MIRECC fellowship with CIH where she focuses on developing, testing, and implementing brief evidence-based interventions for smoking, hazardous drinking, and comorbid health conditions for Veterans seen in primary care through PC-MHI and integrated team-delivered behavioral healthcare. Her work aims to increase access to, and engagement in, integrated behavioral healthcare that incorporates Veterans' treatment preferences. The goal of her HSR&D Career Development Award is to develop, refine, and evaluate a brief, team-delivered intervention for unmotivated smokers and drinkers with co-occurring cardiovascular conditions that will be acceptable to Veterans and feasible for providers to implement in the unique PC-MHI setting.