Karen Blase, Ph.D.
Biography:
Karen A. Blase, Ph.D. has been a program developer, researcher, trainer, program evaluator and published author in the human service field for over 30 years. She has been privileged to serve as the President of the Foster Family-based Treatment Association of North America and President of the international Teaching-Family Association. Throughout her career, Karen has had extensive involvement in knowledge utilization, dissemination, and program replication including developing training programs, fidelity standards, and certification programs for staff and agencies.
Karen received her doctorate in Developmental and Child Psychology from the University of Kansas with a focus on school-based interventions and community-based services for children and youth involved with juvenile justice and child welfare. Her professional career has involved establishing a network of community-based group homes for youth involved with the juvenile justice system in rural North Carolina. Her work at Father Flanagan’s Boys Home (now Girls and Boys Town) included working extensively with agencies and governments in 13 states and 2 provinces to establish community-based human service programs with a strong evidence base.
A major interest has been the development, implementation, adaptation, and quality improvement of exemplary service models, evidence-based programs and practices, and strategies for effective scale-up and systems change. As part of a research team, Dr. Blase was involved in completing a major review and synthesis of the implementation literature. http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~nirn/resources/publications/Monograph/ This extensive review of implementation strategies and proposed frameworks is providing guidance for the adoption and utilization of evidence-based programs and practices.
Karen currently is a Senior Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Karen is Co-Director, along with Dean Fixsen, of the National Implementation Research Network http://nirn.fpg.unc.edu. Karen and Dean Fixsen also are Co-Directors of the OSEP State Implementation and Scaling up Evidence-based Practices Center http://www.scalingup.org. Karen is a team member of the OSEP TA Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (TACSEI) http://www.challengingbehavior.org/index.htm.
Contact:
Publications:
Newman, C., Liberton, C., Kutash, K., & Friedman, R. (Eds.) (2008). Annual Research Conference Proceedings, A System of Care for Children's Mental Health: Expanding the Research Base. Tampa, Florida: University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, Department of Child and Family Studies, The Research and Training Center for Children’s Mental Health.
Armstong M.I., Blase, K., Caldwell, B., Holt, W., King-Miller, T., Kuppinger, A., Obrochta, C., Policella, D.N., & Wallace, F. (2006). Final report: Independent assessment of the New Jersey’s children’s behavioral health care system. Tampa, FL: The University of South Florida. Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute. (FMHI Publication #239)
Fixsen, D. L., Naoom, S. F., Blase, K. A., Friedman, R. M., & Wallace, F. (2005). Implementation research: A synthesis of the literature. Tampa, FL: University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, The National Implementation Research Network.
