Olga Acosta Price, PhD

Olga Acosta Price is an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health. She also serves as deputy director of SPHHS's Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.

• Phone: (202) 466-3396, ext. 17
• Fax: (202) 466-3467
• Email: oaprice@gwu.edu

A passionate advocate of school-based mental health services, Olga Acosta Price has dedicated her formal training in clinical psychology to improving the lives of young people. "My experiences working with children, youth and families have driven my desire to understand resilience and to approach our work together from a strength-based perspective," she says. Giving voice to the concerns of young people is an essential priority for her. "I thoroughly enjoy creating opportunities for youth to share their insights. They don't hesitate to tell those of us who develop systems of care that we are clueless about what the world is really like for them."

Prior to joining the faculty in 2006, Professor Price was director of the School Mental Health Program at the Department of Mental Health in Washington, DC, where she earned the Employee of the Year award. She was also an assistant professor at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine and served as associate director of the Center for School Mental Health Assistance, a national technical assistance center. In that latter capacity, she helped to promote the development of school-based mental health services across the country.

Education

Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), Vassar College, 1990
Master of Arts (Psychology), State University of New York at Buffalo
Doctor of Philosophy (Clinical psychology), State University of New York at Buffalo, 1997

Research

Dr. Price's primary research activities have been in the area of school mental health, prevention, resilience, community violence, and program development and evaluation. She is currently principal investigator of a SAMHSA-funded outreach program designed to address teen suicide. Click here for a list of selected, recent publications.

Community Service

Dr. Price is a member of the U.S. Senate's Federal School Mental Health workgroup, co-president of the D.C. Assembly on School-Based Health Care and a consultant to several DC government agencies involved in developing school mental health programs. She is also a member of the Community Advisory Board of the DC-Baltimore Center for the Improvement of Child Health Disparities.

Departments

• Prevention and Community Health

Publications

• Responses to terrorism: The voices of two communities speak out.
  Clauss-Elhers CS, Acosta OM, Weist MD. Responses to terrorism: The voices of two communities speak out. In: Clauss-Elhers CS, Weist MD, editors. Community planning to foster resiliency in children. New York: Kluwer/Plenum Academic Press; 2004.
• Assessing the psychosocial and academic needs of Latino youth to inform the development of school-based programs.
  Acosta OM, Weist MD, Lopez FA, Shafer ME, Pizarro LJ. Assessing the psychosocial and academic needs of Latino youth to inform the development of school-based programs. Behav Modif 2004;27:1-17.
• Establishing successful school mental health programs: Guidelines and recommendations.
  Acosta OM, Tashman NA, Prodente C, Proescher E. Establishing successful school mental health programs: Guidelines and recommendations. In: Ghuman HS, Weist MD, Sarles RM, editors. Providing mental health services to youth where they are: school and community-based approaches. New York: Brunner-Routledge; 2002;57-74.
• Predictors of violence exposure among inner-city youth.
  Weist MD, Acosta OM, Youngstrom EA. Predictors of violence exposure among inner-city youth. J Clin Child Psychol 2001;30 (1).
• Why did they graduate? A pilot study considering resilience among inner-city youth.
  Schaeffer CM, Stolbach A, Tashman NA, Acosta OM, Weist MD. Why did they graduate? A pilot study considering resilience among inner-city youth. Int J Ment Health Promot 2001;3 (2):8-14.
• Assessing the status of research on violence-related problems in youth.
  Acosta OM, Albus KA, Reynold M, Spriggs D, Weist MD. Assessing the status of research on violence-related problems in youth. J Clin Child Psychol 2001;30 (1):152-60.
• Toward the integration of prevention research and expanded school mental health programs.
  Tashman NA, Weist MD, Acosta OM, Bickham NL, Grady M et al. Toward the integration of prevention research and expanded school mental health programs. Children's Services 2000;3 (2):97-115.
• Let's ask the homeless people themselves: A needs assessment based on a probability sample of adults.
  Acosta OM, Toro PA. Let's ask the homeless people themselves: A needs assessment based on a probability sample of adults. Am J Community Psychol 2000; 28 (3):343-66.
• Changing paradigms in child and adolescent psychiatry: Toward expanded school mental health.
  Weist MD, Acosta OM, Tashman NA, Nabors LA, Albus KA. Changing paradigms in child and adolescent psychiatry: Toward expanded school mental health. Ann Adolesc Psychiatry 1999;24:119-32.
• Severe mental illness among homeless adults and its association with longitudinal outcomes.
  Toro PA, Goldstein MS, Rowland LL, Bellavia CW, Wolfe SM et al. Severe mental illness among homeless adults and its association with longitudinal outcomes. Special issue on severe and persistent mental disorders, Behav Ther 1999;30:431-52.