NAMI members helped me to become a better clinician, scientist, and public servant throughout my 35-year career as a clinical psychologist. I look forward to giving back to NAMI by sharing a learning health perspective with the Scientific Advisory Group that values research evidence, practice-based knowledge, and the lived experience of service users and family members equally.
Robert K. Heinssen, Ph.D., ABPP is the former director of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He is recognized internationally as a leader in science-to-practice initiatives in serious mental illness, including translational research in psychosis risk states, comparative effectiveness and implementation trials in first-episode psychosis, and suicide prevention in military and civilian settings.
His research and public policy contributions have facilitated rapid and substantial growth of science-based early intervention services across the United States. He is the principal architect of the nation’s first learning health care system for persons with serious mental illness, the Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET).
Dr. Heinssen has received several prestigious awards, including recognition from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the International Early Psychosis Association, the International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He is a graduate of the Catholic University of America and completed internship and residency training at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Chestnut Lodge Hospital, respectively. Dr. Heinssen is a board-certified clinical psychologist, a Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology, and a veteran of the U.S. Army Medical Services Corps.
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