VISN 2 Center for Integrated Healthcare (CIH)
Katherine M. Dollar, PhD
Executive Director
Biography: Dr. Katherine Dollar is the Executive Director of the VA Center for Integrated Healthcare (CIH). In Fall 2015, she returned to the CIH after two years of service as a Technical Assistance Specialist with VHA's Office of Mental Health Operations (OMHO), focusing on program development and implementation. Prior to her work with OMHO, Dr. Dollar served as the CIH Clinical Coordinator. Her background and clinical expertise is in integrated care and she has been a core resource for training, education, program implementation, and consultation in integrated care since 2009. Prior training resources that she helped develop include the Co-located, Collaborative Care Operations Manual and the 5As video along with multiple national skill-based workshops and presentations. She also has expertise in technical assistance for clinical program implementation. She is passionate about integrated care and brings enthusiasm to further support PCMHI. In collaboration with the Office of Mental Health Operations, she oversees the PCMHI facilitation initiative to support full PCMHI implementation. Prior to her tenure with the Center for Integrated Healthcare, Dr. Dollar engaged in clinical work as an integrated primary care behavioral health provider at the Western New York Health Care Systems, Buffalo campus. Her primary area of expertise is Primary Care-Mental Health Integration (PC-MHI), with an emphasis in co-located, collaborative care. Dr. Dollar received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Jackson State University and MA from Middle Tennessee State University. She completed her pre-doctoral internship with an emphasis in primary care and behavioral medicine at the VA Western New York Health Care System in Buffalo, NY.
Research/Program Implementation Interests: Dr. Dollar's primary research and program implementation interests include investigating the use of evidence-informed technical assistance strategies, e.g., external/internal facilitation, to increase utilization of evidence-based interventions in clinical practice among mental health clinicians working in primary care settings, also known as Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT) in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Dollar is also interested in better understanding the facilitators and barriers to delivering mental and behavioral health services in primary care settings.
