• Adjunct Professor, Global Health
  • Professor, Psychology

Department of Psychology
335 Guthrie Hall
Box 351525
Seattle, WA 98195
United States

Phone Number: 
206-543-4527
Fax: 
Email: 
dorsey2@uw.edu
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Biography 

Dr. Dorsey’s research is on evidence-based treatments (EBT) for children and adolescents, with a particular focus on dissemination and implementation of EBT domestically and internationally. Her work has often focused on Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), with hybrid research designs that include both effectiveness and implementation questions. Research has focused on adaptation for unique populations (e.g., foster care) and on training and supervision strategies to deliver TF-CBT and other EBT. Dr. Dorsey is a Principal Investigator on two NIH-funded randomized controlled trials (RCT) involving TF-CBT. The first, in Washington State, studies the role of supervisors in public mental health settings in supporting EBP with clinicians under their supervision. It includes both a descriptive study of common supervision practices and a RCT of supervision strategies. The second, in Tanzania and Kenya, is a RCT of TF-CBT using a task-shifting/task-sharing model in which lay counselors, with little to no prior mental health training, deliver group-based TF-CBT to children and adolescents who have experienced the death of one or both parents, under close supervision by TF-CBT experts. Dr. Dorsey is also involved in common elements/modular EBT training initiatives and research both in Washington State and internationally, in low and middle income countries (Zambia, Ukraine, Myanmar).



Education 
  • PhD (University of Georgia)
  • MS (University of Georgia)
Country Affiliations 
Health Topics 
  • Child and Adolescent Health (incl. Pediatrics)
  • Community-Based Participatory Research
  • Implementation Science
  • Mental Health
  • Qualitative Research and Methods
DGH Centers, Programs and Initiatives and Affiliated Organizations 
Publications 

Dorsey, S., Gray, C. L., Wasonga, A. I., Amanya, C., Weiner, B. J., Belden, C. M., Martin, P., Meza, R. D., Weinhold, A., Soi, C., Murray, L. K., Lucid, L., Turner, E. L., Mildon, R., & Whetten, K. (2020). Advancing successful implementation of task-shifted mental health care in low-resource settings (BASIC): Protocol for a stepped wedge cluster randomized trial. BMC Psychiatry, 20 (10), 1-14.

Dorsey, S., Lucid, L., Martin, P., King, K. M., O’Donnell, K., Murray, L. K., Wasonga, A. I., Itemba, D. K., Cohen, J. A., Manongi, R., & Whetten, K. (2020). Effectiveness of task-shifted trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for children who experienced parental death and posttraumatic stress in Kenya and Tanzania a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry.

Dorsey, S., Meza, R. D., Martin, P., Gray, C. L., Triplett, N. S., Soi, C., Woodard, G. S., Lucid, L., Amanya, C., Wasonga, A., Whetten, K. (2019). Lay counselor perspectives of providing a child-focused mental health intervention for children: Task-sharing in the education and health extension sectors in Kenya. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 1-15.