Scholarship and Biography
Joanne Nicholson, PhD, is a Professor in the Institute for Behavioral Health and a clinical and research psychologist with over 30 years of experience working with parents with mental health conditions and disabilities, and their families. She is an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the UMass Chan Medical School and a Faculty Fellow at Mercy University. Nicholson is co-founder of the Prato International Research Collaborative for Parent and Child Mental Health, the Maternal Mental Health Research Collaborative, and the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities. She has an active program of research and community support development on families, mental health, and disability, in partnership with people in recovery. She and her collaborators have developed education and training resources for parents and families, integrating the current knowledge on parents with mental health conditions and evaluating family-focused interventions, including the Family Options intervention and, more recently, the ParentingWell initiative in Massachusetts and Philadelphia, PA, USA. Nicholson and colleagues are exploiting emerging technologies on behalf of individuals with mental health conditions and disabilities, developing and testing the WorkingWell mobile app to provide support for individuals in the workplace.
Nicholson has provided training and consultation to local, regional, and national organizations such as the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the Manic Depressive/ Depressive Association, Mental Health America, Families for Depression Awareness, the Institute on Family-Centered Care, the Child Welfare League of America, and Child and Family Futures. She has visited parents and programs around the world as a consultant and trainer, providing keynote presentations and working together with national and international groups in Australia, The Netherlands, Spain, Norway, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Austria, Finland, and provinces across Canada. Nicholson and her colleagues published the first guide for parents living with mental health conditions written by parents, Parenting Well When You’re Depressed, and a guide for professionals written by professionals, Creating Options for Family Recovery: A Provider’s Guide to Promoting Parental Mental Health. She has published over 150 papers and original articles in professional journals and edited volumes, provided interviews for newspapers, magazines, and radio in the U.S. and other countries, and has been an invited contributor to the Huffington Post.
Nicholson has received funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Alliance for Mental Illness Research Institute, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Library of Medicine, PCORI, the National Science Foundation, private foundations, and industry sources. She is an Advisory Group member and consultant to numerous research initiatives and community-based organizations serving parents and families in the U.S. and abroad.