Deborah Gross

DNSc, MS, BSN, RN, FAAN

Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Endowed Professor in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing

Deborah Gross is best known for her work designing and scaling behavioral health interventions that support families of young children from low-income, underserved communities and who may have experienced trauma and adversity. At Johns Hopkins, she holds joint appointments in the School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and in the Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Mental Health. Dr. Gross is also the Director of the Center for Child and Youth Health, an interdisciplinary center dedicated to improving the lives of all young people, prenatal to young adulthood, ensuring a strong foundation for lifelong health and wellbeing. Dr. Gross and colleagues developed the innovative Chicago Parent Program (CPP), an evidence-based parenting skills and support program created in collaboration with Black/African-American and Latino parents of young children from low-income communities. Since inception, CPP has been used in schools, early childhood programs, human service agencies, and child mental health settings in over 25 states and the District of Columbia. Dr. Gross was a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow, and among her many recognitions are the Friends of the National Institute for Nursing Research President’s Award for outstanding research, the American Academy of Nursing Edge Runner award honoring developers of model programs offering solutions to health care challenges, and induction into the Sigma Theta Tau Researchers Hall of Fame. She has served on numerous review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the National Academies of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), has published extensively on parenting, young children’s mental health and wellbeing, designing equitable community-based interventions and measures that leverage family strengths and resilience, and creating scalable interventions that address the needs of families and young children. She currently serves on the editorial board of Research in Nursing & Health.

Wikipedia Bio

JHU Center Affiliation:
Center for Child and Youth Health
Resilient, Engaged, and Connected (REC) Study
Resilience RRT C

Full CV

[email protected]

Specialties and Expertise

Publications

Kassa G, Yu z, Minwuyelet F, & Gross D. (in press). Behavioral interventions targeting the prevention and treatment of young children’s mental health problems in l0w- and middle-income countries: A scoping review. Journal of Global Health.

Bettencourt AF, Plesko CM, Gross D, & Musci RJ. (2024). Early predictors of patterns of academic support service receipt in elementary school. School Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-024-09724-z

Minton, H. M., Murray, L., Allan, M. J., Perry, R., Bettencourt, A. F., Gross, D., Strano, L., & Breitenstein, S. M. (2024). Implementation of a Parent Training Program During Community-Based Dissemination (From In-Person to Hybrid): Mixed Methods Evaluation. JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting, 7(1), e55280. https://doi.org/10.2196/55280

Danford CA, Mooney-Doyle K, Detrick J, Feetham S, Gross D, Knafl K, Kobayashi K, Moriarity H, Ostergaard B, and Swallow V (2024). Building Family Interventions for Scalability and Impact. Journal of Family Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1177/10748407241231342

Kassa G, Batchelder A, & Gross D. (2024). Prevalence and determinants of postpartum depression among adolescent and adult mothers in Northwest Ethiopia. Research in Nursing & Health, 47(2):125-140. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.22362

Bettencourt AF, Gross D, Schock N, Ferro R, & Perrin N (2023). Embedding a parenting skills program in public PreK: Outcomes of a quasi-experimental mixed methods study. Early Education and Development, 35(7):1614-1637 https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2023.2247954

Slade E, Bettencourt AF, & Gross D. (2023). Cost-effectiveness of a parenting skills program implemented in public PreK schools in disadvantaged urban communities. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 50:888-900 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-023-01287-6

*Plesko C, Yu Z, Tobin R, Richman R, Gross D. (2024). A mixed methods study of parents’ social connectedness in a group-based parenting program in low-income communities. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 94(1):1-14 https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000695

Plesko C, Tobin K, & Gross D. (2023). Understanding the role of parents’ social connectedness in children’s behavioral wellbeing in low-income communities: A study protocol. Research in Nursing & Health, 46:26-36.

Gross D, Bettencourt AF, Finch WH, Plesko C, Paulson R, Singleton DL. (2022). Developing an equitable measure of parent engagement in early childhood education for urban schools. Children and Youth Services Review, 141, 106613 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106613

2020 Top Baltimore Nurses, Baltimore Magazine

2018 Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice Award

2017 Nursing Outlook Excellence in Practice Writing Award

2017 AERA Division H Outstanding Publications Award for Applied Research Reports, Division on Research, Education, and Assessments in Schools

Fellow, American Academy of Nursing

Ambassador of the Friends of the National Institute for Nursing Research

Sigma Theta Tau International Researcher Hall of Fame

President’s Award, Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research

Edgerunner, American Academy of Nursing

Fellow, Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Leaders Program

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