Dean Fixsen, Ph.D.
Biography:
Dean L. Fixsen, Ph.D. began his career in human services in 1963 as a Psychiatric Aide in a large state hospital for children with profound developmental delays. Dean combined this work with education and received his doctorate in Experimental Psychology from the University of Kansas in 1970. Beginning in 1969 he served as Co-Director of the Achievement Place Research Project during the years of intense research on the treatment components of the Teaching-Family Model. In 1975, Dean was one of five Teaching-Family researchers who moved to Father Flanagan's Boys' Home to transition that large organization from institutional care to family-based care for boys and girls. In 1979, Dean, Karen Blase, and others began developing and evaluating a system to replicate and implement the Teaching-Family Model nationally. In 1986, Dean and his colleagues helped to establish and test adaptations and extensions of the Teaching-Family Model in home-based treatment settings and treatment foster care settings in Alberta, Canada and developed self-help Family Resource Centers in neighborhoods in Calgary.
In 1995, Dean began to focus on the critical dimensions associated with national implementation of a variety of evidence-based programs. This work has led to a major review of the implementation evaluation literature, reviews of successful implementation practices, and the development of a network of program purveyors, implementation sites, family and cultural experts, state and federal policy makers, and researchers.
The combination of direct service and research experiences have provided many opportunities to learn about evidence-based program development, successful strategies for program replication and implementation, organizational and systems development, managing change processes, practical program evaluation, program administration, systems transformation, and neighborhood development.
Dean is co-director, along with Karen Blase, of the National Implementation Research Network and of the State Implementation and Scaling up Evidence-based Practices Center. He has spent his career developing and implementing evidence-based programs, initiating and managing change processes, and working with others to improve the lives of children, families, and adults. In addition to co-authoring over 100 publications, he has advised federal, state, and local governments. Dean is a Senior Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.
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.
Powell, D., Fixsen, D., Dunlap, G., Smith, B., & Fox, L. (2007). A synthesis of knowledge relevant to pathways of service utilization for young children with or at risk of challenging behavior. Journal of Early Intervention, 29, 81-106.
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.
