Meagan O’Malley, Research Associate in WestEd’s Health & Justice Program, specializes in mental health promotion and violence prevention among children, youth, and young adults. She conducts research, provides consultation, and facilitates collaborative conversations among youth-serving agencies addressing these complex community challenges.
O’Malley manages WestEd’s Now Is The Time (NITT) Technical Assistance Center subcontract, funded by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). In this role, she oversees provision of technical assistance to 11 Project AWARE [Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education]-funded state education agencies as they seek to improve mental health awareness, increase cross-agency collaboration, and improve access to mental health supports for school-aged youth.
She also is the Field Director for two multi-site, multi-year projects: the Safe and Supportive Schools Initiative for the California Department of Education, and the Quality Improvement and Evaluation Project for the Child, Youth, and School Services division of the U.S. Army.
Her work on psychological well-being and school climate perceptions, particularly as they vary across youth with high-risk life experiences, such as youth in foster homes and across sociocultural groups, has been published in several research journals.
Prior to joining WestEd, O’Malley served youth and their families as a school psychologist in a variety of rural and urban education settings.
She received a BA in psychology from the University of California, Davis; a PhD in counseling, clinical, and school psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara; and completed her predoctoral clinical residency at The School at Columbia University.