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VCU Department of Psychology

Research projects

• BEST in CLASS: Elementary
• Multi-level Determinants of Implementation and Sustainment in the Education Sector
• The Centre for Holistic Initiatives for Learning and Development (CHILD)
• Developing and Validating a Technically Sound and Feasible Self-report Measure of Teachers’ Delivery of Common Practice Elements.
• Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Mental Health Practices for Youth with Autism Supported by Online Consultation to Practitioners in Community and Navy Clinics
• Distilling Practice Elements for School-Based Practices and Programs that Improve Social and Behavioral Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis
• Birth-to-Five Curriculum for Virginia Early Learners

Team members

• Jennifer Cecilione
• Katrina Markowicz
• Navneet Kaur
• Cristian Rivera Nales
• Kerensa Nagle
• Alexys Weihl 
• Meghan Reichel
• Grace Li
• Lauren Oddo
• Erica Ross

Social media

Dr. McLeod's twitter: @MrCommonElement

BEST in CLASS twitter: @BiC4Behavior

CREATE lab twitter: @CREATELabVCU

About

I am a Professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a Visiting Professor of Paediatrics at the National University of Singapore. I received my doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004. I currently serve as an Associate Editor of Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and have served on local, national, and international committees focused on evidence-based practice for children and adolescents with social, emotional, and behavioral problems.

Our group is engaged in research projects designed to understand factors that influence the implementation and sustainment of evidence-based practices in community settings. Major themes in our research include distilling practice elements from the research literature, using practice elements to develop programs that can be implemented in community settings, and developing tools and training strategies to support the implementation of evidence-based practices. Our current funded work focuses on effectiveness trials in mental health and school settings and the development of pragmatic self-report treatment integrity instruments to promote the evaluation, implementation, and sustainment of evidence-based programs in community settings.

Selected publications

McLeod, B. D., Sutherland, K. S., Conroy, M. A., Lyon, A. R., Chapman, J. E., Granger, K. L., & Saldana, L. (2022). Study protocol: Multi-level determinants of implementation and sustainment in the education sector. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Advance online publication.

McLeod, B. D., Jensen-Doss, A., Lyon, A. R., Douglas, S., & Beidas, R. S. (2022). To utility and beyond! Specifying and advancing the clinical utility of measurement-based care for youth. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 51(4), 375-388.

McLeod, B. D., Cook, C. Sutherland, K. S., Lyon, A. R., Dopp, A., Broda, M., & Beidas, R. S. (2021). A theory-informed approach to locally-managed learning school systems: Integrating treatment integrity and student outcome data to promote student mental health. School Mental Health. Advance online publication.

McLeod, B. D., Cecilione, J. L., Jensen-Doss, A., Southam-Gerow, M. A., & Kendall, P. C. (2021). Reliability, factor structure, and validity of an observer-rated alliance scale with youth. Psychological Assessment, 33(10), 1013-1023.

McLeod, B. D., Southam-Gerow, M. A., Jensen-Doss, A., Hogue, A., Kendall, P. C., & Weisz, J. R. (2019). Benchmarking treatment adherence and therapist competence in individual cognitive-behavioral treatment for youth anxiety disorders. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 48(S1), S234-S246.

McLeod, B. D., Cox, J. R., Jensen-Doss, A., Herschell, A., Ehrenreich-May, J., & Wood, J. J. (2018). Proposing a mechanistic model of training and consultation. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 25(3), e12260.