Kathy Gracey, MEd

Kathy Gracey received her M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Mississippi. She has been a member of the department of psychiatry since 1992. She serves as the administrator, responsible for oversight and implementation, of multiple programs serving at risk children, youth and families. Ms. Gracey has been the key person within the Vanderbilt Center of Excellence to assist the Department of Children Services (DCS) with the implementation of a statewide assessment intervention for all children/families in DCS custody along with the implementation of a statewide assessment for non-custody families. She has assisted with a roll out of the Juvenile Justice Assessment that has been implemented in approximately 58 juvenile justice courts, training over 300 court staff in Tennessee. This entailed significant collaboration within the Tennessee state system (i.e., Department of Children Services, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services along with the Administrative Office of the Courts, which included multi-regional training, networking and on-going technical assistance. Additional statewide system improvement initiatives in collaboration with the TN Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services are projects that support evidence-based practices for our TN System of Care and TN First Episode Psychosis initiative. Ms. Gracey’s research interest include trauma, system improvement, child welfare and juvenile justice. In 1986 Ms. Gracey moved to Nashville to become Director of a not for profit organization that served youth who had experienced sexual trauma. She has been implementing programs at Vanderbilt for at-risk youth and families and youth who have experienced complex trauma for the past 29 years.