Image of Doreen Cavanaugh

Doreen Cavanaugh, Ph.D., is the Director of Cavanaugh Consulting LLC and a retired Research Professor at the Health Policy Institute, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University where she has worked with the United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and its grantees in over 40 states, territories and Native American tribes; the Office of National Drug Control Policy; the US Department of Education; the US Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and other federal agencies on quality measures, performance measurement and evaluation, financing, implementation and organization of substance use and mental health screening, treatment and recovery services for over 20 years.

Dr. Cavanaugh has provided technical assistance to the National Conference of State Legislatures, National Academy for State Health Policy, National Association of State Alcohol/Drug Abuse Directors, Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, Legal Action Center and numerous other national organizations. She has conducted qualitative and quantitative studies, authored policy analyses, conducted and supervised the development of environmental scans and has directed and facilitated many national policy summits, policy academies, evaluations and federal expert consensus panels. She has worked with the majority of States, several Native American Tribes and US territories on topics including performance measurement and evaluation, behavioral health system design, financing and organization, infrastructure development, interagency collaboration, workforce development, and implementation of screening, treatment and recovery programs. Dr. Cavanaugh is the professor of Policy Development, Analysis and Evaluation, The Evaluators’ Institute, Claremont Graduate University and has taught the class in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Dr. Cavanaugh received her Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University.