Amy N. Mendenhall, PhD, MSW

Dr. Amy Mendenhall is an associate professor and the Associate Dean for Research in the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas. She joined the KU faculty in 2009, and served as the Director for the School’s Center for Children & Families from 2013-2016. Dr. Mendenhall received her MSW and PhD from the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Division of the Department of Psychiatry at the Ohio State University Medical Center. As a graduate assistant and post-doctoral fellow in the OSU Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Mendenhall completed approximately three years of post-MSW practice experience in the inpatient, outpatient, and research units. Her scholarship and research focus on child and adolescent well-being and mental health, specifically service utilization, mental health literacy, and the impact of trauma and mental illness on families. Past research and evaluation projects include studies of strengths case management for youth, the Attachment Bio-Behavioral Catch-up intervention, Mental Health First Aid, service utilization of children diagnosed with serious emotional disturbance, and rural patient centered health care. Dr. Mendenhall teaches BSW and MSW clinical courses including “Mental Health and Psychopathology” in the MSW Program and “Foundations of Social Work Practice” in the junior year of the BSW Program.