Faculty & Staff
Faculty
|
|
Title: Associate Professor |
Annette Christy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioral Health Science
& Practice (BHSP) at the de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI), College
of Behavioral and Community Sciences, at the University of South Florida. She received
her Ph.D. in 1998 from Saint Louis University in Applied/Experimental Psychology,
with an emphasis in social psychology. She was mentored there by Drs. Eddie Clark,
Jim Korn, and Richard Wiener. She developed an interest in behavioral health policy
and research while working at the Missouri Institute of Mental Health during graduate
school and was mentored by Dr. Carol Evans. She was a National Association of State
Mental Health Program Directors fellow in mental health services research at FMHI
from 1998 to 2000, before joining the faculty of BHSP (formerly Mental Health Law
& Policy) in 2000.
Dr. Christy focuses on the interaction of the behavioral health and criminal justice
systems. She has directed the Baker Act Reporting Center since 1998. This Center focuses on statewide reporting on civil commitment. This
includes reporting for Florida's Baker Act and, more recently, for the Marchman Act.
She is an expert in obtaining large volumes of documents, coordinating data entry,
utilizing administrative data, and developing systems for collecting high-quality
data in real-world settings. Her work has also included studies of incompetence to
proceed assessments and criminal justice system diversions for persons with behavioral
health disorders (including a focus on Veterans). She was also recently a co-investigator
for a six-state study of risk protection orders funded by the National Collaborative
on Gun Violence Research.
Education
B.A., Purdue University Calumet
M.S., Saint Louis University
Ph.D., Saint Louis University
Research Interests
Involuntary care (civil commitment, coercion)
Justice system diversions for people with behavioral health disorders
Process of using external data/large data sets
Program evaluation
Research Projects
Recent Publications
Paruk, J., Christy, A., Frattaroli, S., & Zeoli, A. (2025). Florida’s risk protection order cases and intimate
partner violence: A descriptive study. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. [https://doi:10.1177/08862605251315768][https://doi:10.1177/08862605251315768]https://doi:10.1177/08862605251315768
Paruk, J., Rhode, S., Molocznik, A., Christy, A., Knoepke, C. E., Kapoor, R., Frattaroli, S., & Zeoli, A.M. (2025, early access).
Research assistant perspectives of strategies to reduce the likelihood of experiencing
vicarious trauma, Journal of Gender-Based Violence. [https://doi:10.1332/23986808Y2025D000000078][https://doi:10.1332/23986808Y2025D000000078]https://doi:10.1332/23986808Y2025D000000078
Barnard, L. M., Betz, M. E., Frattaroli, S., Knoepke, C. E., Christy, A., Schleimer, J. P., Pear, V. A., McCarthy, M., Kapoor, R., Norko, M. A., Rowhani-Rahbar,
A., Ma, W., Wintemute, G. J., Swanson, J. W., Easter, M. M., & Zeoli, A. M. (2025).
Extreme risk protection order use in six US states: a descriptive study. Injury Epidemiology,
12(1), Article 30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-025-00585-x
Zeoli, A. M., Molocznik, A., Paruk, J., Omaki, E., Frattaroli, S., Betz, M. E., &
9 additional authors listed alphabetically, including Christy, A. (2024). A multi-state
evaluation of extreme risk protection orders: A research protocol. Injury Epidemiology,
11 (article 49). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-024-00535-z
Betz, M. E., Frattaroli, S., Knoepke, C. E., Johnson, R., Christy, A., Schleimer,
J. P., Pear, V. A., McCarthy, M., Kapoor, R., Norko, M. A., Rowhani-Rahbar, A., Ma,
W., Wintemute, G. J., Swanson, J. W., & Zeoli, A. M. (2024). Extreme Risk Protection
Orders in Older Adults in Six U.S. States: A Descriptive Study. Clinical gerontologist,
47(4), 536–543. https://doi.org/10.1080/07317115.2023.2254279
Zeoli, A. M., Frattaroli, S., Barnard, L., Bowen, A., Christy, A., Easter, M., Kapoor,
R., Knoepke, C., Ma, W., Molocznik, A., Norko, M., Omaki, E., Paruk, J. K., Pear,
V. A., Rowhani-Rahbar, A., Schleimer, J. P., Swanson, J. W., & Wintemute, G. J. (2022).
Extreme risk protection orders in response to threats of multiple victim/mass shooting
in six U.S. states: A descriptive study. Preventive Medicine, 165(Pt A), Article 107304.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107304
Lersch, K., & Christy, A. (2020). The geography of mental health: An examination of police calls for service. In K. M. Lersch & Jayajit Chakraborty (Eds.). Geographies of Behavioral Health, Crime, and Disorder: The Intersection of Social
Problems and Place. GeoJournal Library, Volume 126, D. Z. Sui (Ed.). New York: Springer. doi:978-3-030-33467-3_2
Moore, K.A., Christy, A., McPherson, M., & Barnett, J. (in press). University and public behavioral health organization collaboration at the de la Part Florida Mental Health Institute. Heilbrun, K., Wright, H. J., Giallela, C., & DeMatteo (Eds.). University and Public Behavioral Health Organization Collaboration in Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.