Faculty & Staff
Faculty
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Krista Kutash, PhDProfessor Emerita |
Dr. Kutash retired from USF Spring 2012 and was granted the status of Professor Emeritus. She served as a faculty member in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the Louis de la Parte, Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI) since 1983. (In 2008, the departments within FMHI merged with additional USF academic units to become the USF College of Behavioral & Community Sciences.)
Dr. Kutash has had clinical experience as a social worker before devoting full time to research and training. Her doctorate is in Educational Measurement and Research, and she has earned an MBA with a specialty in economics.
Dr. Kutash served as Co-Director of the nationally recognized Research and Training Center for Children's mental health that operated over a period of 25 years and received $15 million in federal funding. As part of the Center, she oversaw the annual research conference for 21 years and it became nationally known for its excellence in providing research leadership.
She is recognized for her expertise in community-applied research methodology and her application of these methods to researching publically funded children's mental health services, school-based mental health, and parent-support programs. She was a major contributor to the success of the nationally recognized Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health (RTC) that operated over a period of 25 years and received $15 million in federal funding. As part of the Center, she oversaw the annual research conference for 21 years and it became nationally known for its excellence in providing research leadership.
In addition to her contributions to the Center, she has been a major collaborator on successful federal grants at FMHI and the Department of Psychology at USF and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School for an additional total of $5 million. Her federal funding has included research sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the National Institute on Disabilities and Rehabilitation Research, Office of Special Education Programs and the Institute of Education Sciences.
She has published widely and has produced 3 books and over 100 publications including journal articles, book chapters and monographs. Among her extensive publications is a comprehensive review of the empirical base of the system of care for children who have emotional and behavioral disabilities and their families (Kutash & Rivera, 1996) as well as publications and presentations in the area of improving the outcomes for children. She has served on 13 federal review panels and editorial boards of several journals. For five years, she was the Co-Editor of the Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders one of the premiere inter-disciplinary children's mental health research journal that has an impact rating of 2.0. She is nationally recognized for her expertise and is constantly in demand for consultation on complex community-based research designs and for providing presentations to national organizations.
Dr. Kutash has taught courses in three departments (Nursing, Social Work, and Special Education), and has served as major professor or committee member for 20 dissertations, master theses and honors theses.
At USF, Dr. Kutash has served on the Social and Behavioral Institutional Research Board (lRB) as Chair, Co-Chair or a member for over 12 years. She has also served on the Athletic Council for over 5 years.