About SIRC
History & Inspiration
Historically, evidence-based interventions (EBIs) were not widely used in everyday practice. Service providers often relied on a mix of approaches that had not been formally evaluated. Over time, this began to change as interventions underwent rigorous testing and evidence showed which approaches were most effective.
Today, EBIs are recognized as critical to providing high-quality care; however, putting these approaches into practice, and keeping them over time, remains challenging for providers and communities. To address this, researchers and practitioners have worked together to find practical ways to support implementation in real-world settings.
These collaborations have led to useful tools, strategies, and new ways of learning what works in practice. However, little was published on lessons learned from implementation and teams were often unaware of each other’s progress. This lack of dialogue slowed progress and sometimes led to unnecessary repetition of work and the absence of common methods, measures, and standards for implementation research.
SIRC was created to facilitate collaboration among implementation researchers, practitioners, and community members. Our goal is to develop effective and practical models of EBI implementation to further implementation innovation. With support from our members and sponsors, SIRC carries out several activities to strengthen collaboration and communication of implementation-related lessons:
- We host biennial conferences and other social events in non-conference years
- We have established networks of individuals interested in implementation research and practice
- We have a SIRC Mentorship Program that connects mentees and mentors in the field of Dissemination & Implementation Science
- In partnership with SAGE Publications, we launched the journal Implementation Research and Practice
Current & Past Presidents
Bo Kim, PhD | Current President
The SIRC president plans the next conference, represents SIRC, calls meetings, oversees initiatives and coordinates the other officers. Dr. Bo Kim is an Investigator at the VA Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research, and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She directs the evaluation core of the VA Behavioral Health Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) Program, and serves as the systems analysis lead for the implementation core of the VA Bridging the Care Continuum QUERI Program. With an academic background in systems science and engineering, her research interests are in applying interdisciplinary methodologies toward studying the quality and implementation of mental health services.
Suzanne ("Sue") Kerns, PhD | Past President
The SIRC president plans the next conference, represents SIRC, calls meetings, oversees initiatives and coordinates the other officers. Dr. Sue Kerns is a clinical community psychologist, professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado and the Director of Transformative Research at the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect. Sue’s research, teaching, and clinical experiences focus on ways to improve the quality and effectiveness of child and family mental health services in real world settings to maximize public health impact. Thus, much of her focus is on enhancing the wellbeing of children and families through ensuring access to proven-effective treatment approaches, including examining the acquisition, implementation, adaptation, and sustainability of evidence-based practices.
Byron Powell, PhD, LCSW | Past President
Byron Powell is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. He is Co-Director of the Brown School’s Center for Mental Health Services Research; Co-Director of the Institute for Public Health’s Center for Dissemination & Implementation, for which he leads the Methods & Metascience Initiative; and Co-Director of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Science’s Dissemination and Implementation Research Core. Byron is a Past President of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Implementation Research and Practice, and he serves on the editorial board of Implementation Science. He is active in capacity-building initiatives internationally. He serves as the Associate Director for the Implementation Research Institute and core faculty for the HIV, Infectious Disease and Global Health Implementation Research Institute, Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation in Health-Australia, and the Irish Implementation Science Training Institute.
Sara J. Landes, PhD | Past President
Dr. Sara Landes is a psychologist and researcher at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock, AR. She is the Director of the Department of Veteran Affairs’ Behavioral Health Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) Program and Co-Director of the Evidence, Policy, and Implementation Center (EPIC). Dr. Landes is also an Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and core faculty of the UAMS Center for Implementation Research. Her research interests are in implementing evidence-based interventions in large health care systems such as the VA, with a focus on mental health and suicide prevention.
Cara C. Lewis, PhD | Past President
Cara C. Lewis is the Deputy Director of the Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science (CTRIS) at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute within the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Lewis has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a research focus on advancing pragmatic and rigorous measures and methods for implementation science and practice.
Kate Comtois, PhD, MPH | Founding President
Dr. Kate Comtois is a full professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. She is an EBP Champion as she directs a clinic in which she has been implementing EBPs as well as an Intermediary – providing training and consultation on Dialectical Behavior Therapy implementation. She is the founder of SIRC and was PI of the NIMH conference grant from which SIRC began.
Board Members
Gazi Azad, PhD | Treasurer
The treasurer manages the budget and accounts and forecasts funds for future conferences and initiatives. Dr. Azad is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Gazi’s program of research uses the principles of implementation science to optimize service delivery across systems of care for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Additional areas of expertise include community-embedded research, mixed methods, and diversity, equity, and inclusivity in service provision.
Kate Hyzak, PhD | Sponsorship Chair
Dr. Hyzak is the Provost’s tenure track Fellow-to-Assistant Professor research faculty member in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University. She is one of the few implementation scientists nationally whose research is centered on accelerating the reach, implementation, and sustainment of interventions for individuals living with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rehabilitation and community-based settings. Specifically, her program of research is focused on co-developing and investigating multilevel implementation strategies designed to integrate neurologic-informed care into community-based behavioral health treatment. Dr. Hyzak deeply enjoys conducting multidisciplinary team science and fostering community partnerships to address system-level challenges to providing optimal care and achieving heath equity for adults living with chronic brain injury and brain injury-related comorbidities.
Faith Summersett Williams, PhD | Membership Chair
The membership chair oversees membership, collects dues, and conducts initiatives to increase membership of under-represented groups. Dr. Faith Summersett Williams is a Research Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. More specifically, she leads the research portfolio for the Substance Use and Prevention Program (in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. She is the founder and director of the Implementation science + Health Equity Advancement Lab (I+HEAL) and core faculty of the Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science (CDIS) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is trained as a pediatric clinician-scientist, with expertise in the learning health system model, dissemination and implementation (D&I) science methods, and health equity and justice frameworks.
Helen Etya'ale | Student Membership Chair
The Student Membership Officer assists the Membership Chair with membership communications and conducting membership outreach in the service of reaching membership targets. Helen Etya’ale is a second year PhD student in public health sciences at Washington University in St Louis, with a focus on implementation science. She completed her BS at Calvin University and MPH at Emory University. Her research focuses on enhancing the participation of recipients of care and communities in improving health service delivery at primary healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ashey Knapp, PhD | Community Engagement Chair
The DEI Chair is responsible for working with SIRC board members to promote diversity, anti-racism, social justice, and equity in the professional society and embed practices and policies that support leadership and infrastructure for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr. Sapana Patel is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology (in Psychiatry), Director of Implementation Science at the Center for Practice Innovations at Columbia Psychiatry and the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a Research Associate at the Center for Excellence in Cultural Competence supported by the New York State Office of Mental Health. Dr. Patel is a bilingual (Spanish-speaking) Indian American clinical psychologist and services researcher whose work focuses on developing person-centered interventions and novel service-delivery approaches to help overcome disparities in the care of individuals with mental illness from marginalized and minoritized communities.
Mónica Pérez Jolles, PhD | 2026 Conference Chair
The conference chair plans the biennial SIRC conference, including selecting the location, theme, and keynote speakers and organizing preconference workshops and the call for abstracts. Mónica Pérez Jolles, PhD, is an Associated Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and faculty at ACCORDS’ (Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science) Dissemination & Implementation Science Core Program. She draws from complex systems and implementation science methods and frameworks, such as EPIS and PRISM/RE-AIM, to align interventions to local contexts, and from collaborative engagement approaches such as implementation and process service mapping (including Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)), prioritization exercises, and Co-creation workshops. She has applied the concepts of Core Functions and Forms to implementing multi-level interventions with fidelity to function. Her contributions are based on over a decade of experience as a health services and implementation scientist, working in partnership with Federally Qualified Health Center systems, community partners, healthcare professionals and researchers to close the health gap through team-based science.
Hyunjin Kang | 2026 Conference Student Co-Chair
The conference student chair supports the conference chair in planning the SIRC conference. Hyunjin Kang is a PhD student in Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on youth health behaviors and medication use. Her long-term goal is to advance equitable access to evidence-based health services for youth and broader populations worldwide by connecting research with real-world decision-making in pharmaceutical outcomes and policy.
Marisa Sklar, PhD | Investigator Network Chair
Rachel Kim, PhD | Implementation Practice & Support Network (IPSN) Chair
In collaboration with the IPSN Trainee Chair, this role oversees the Implementation Practice & Support Network (IPSN), which consists of people involved in implementing and supporting the implementation of evidence-based practices in real-world settings. Dr. Kim is the Senior Director of Implementation and Associate Director of Training at the Baker Center for Children and Families, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. She leads an intermediary team that partners with community organizations and systems to enhance the quality of behavioral health services for children and families.
Jacob Tempchin | Student Practitioner Network Chair
The Student Practitioner Network Chair provides support for all PN subnetwork meetings, activities, and collaborates with the PN Chair and subnetwork leaders to promote implementation practitioners in SIRC activities, including the conference and PN special initiatives. Jake Tempchin is a third year doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Memphis. He earned an M.S. in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, an advanced certificate in Comparative Effectiveness & Implementation Research Training from the New York University School of Medicine, and a B.A. in philosophy from Princeton University. Jake’s primary career ambition is to facilitate the adaptation and implementation of brief behavioral health interventions in primary care and community settings.
Will Eger, PhD | Social Chair
The social chair organizes and coordinates SIRC social events during the SIRC conference, including dinners, fun runs, and other activities. In addition, the social chair organizes events for SIRC members to gather across the year and while attending other conferences.
Will Eger, MPH, is a PhD Candidate in Interdisciplinary Research on Substance Use at UC San Diego. His research explores the implementation and evaluation of interventions to address non-prescribed drug use in community-based harm reduction settings, such as syringe services programs. He enjoys swimming, running, and going to the beach in his free time.
Alayna Park, PhD | Communications Chair
The Communications Chair of SIRC helps to disseminate news and events of the organization via our email listserv and social media. Dr. Alayna Park is a licensed psychologist and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon. She trained as an intervention and implementation scientist in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her community-engaged research focuses on identifying and testing strategies for improving the accessibility, quality, and effectiveness of public-sector mental health services for racial-ethnic minoritized youths.
Tessa Palafu | Student Communications Chair
The Student Communications Officer assists the Communications Chair with representing SIRC in the social media landscape, as well as the mailing list and website. Tessa Palafu (she/her) is an Implementation Research Assistant at The Baker Center for Children and Families, Implementation Research Division. Her research interests include understanding Historical Trauma in Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations, developing culturally grounded approaches to mental health services for NHPI, and using implementation science to improve the wellbeing of underserved communities. Through her work at the Baker Center, Tessa has supported a variety of projects related to treatment fidelity, understanding predictors of measurement-based care use for clinicians, and looking at barriers and facilitators to implementing a substance use prevention program within a school district.
James Lee, PhD, BCBA-D | Technology Chair
The technology chair oversees and programs the website and related online initiatives. James Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Seattle Children’s Autism Center. His research focuses on increasing service access among marginalized families of young autistic children in publicly-funded Part-C early intervention system. Currently, he is funded by the KL2 Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Award to develop an implementation toolkit to enhance cultural responsiveness in EBP delivery among marginalized families in early intervention.
Student Representatives
Hannah Cheng & Humphrey Beja. The student representatives lead the Trainee Network mentorship program, develop resources to meet student needs, and provide support to the SIRC officers as needed to maximize SIRC conferences and initiatives.
Hannah Cheng is currently part of the Stanford Center for Dissemination and Implementation, where she dedicates her time to learning about how to effectively and efficiently improve access to evidence-based addiction treatments. Starting this fall, Hannah will be a first-year PhD student in the Health Sciences Integrated Program at Northwestern University. Her long-term goal is to leverage implementation science to improve equitable patient access to evidence-based mental health services in the United States and globally.
Humphrey Beja is an Implementation Science Fellow at Mbarara University of Science and Technology. He also served as the 2025 SIRC City Ambassador for Kampala and Mbarara, Uganda. He is the Deputy General Secretary for the National Midwives Association of Uganda for 2023-2027, a member of the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FIGO) Committee on Child birth and Postpartum Haemorrhage (PPH) for 2025-2027, a member of the National Safe Motherhood Expert Committee (NASMEC) on PPH of the Ministry of Health of Uganda.