Our Board

Christine Walrath,  MHS PhD.
Dr. Walrath, a Vice President at ICF Macro, has over 15 years experience in youth services research and evaluation design, data collection, management and analysis, and has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is experienced in both local and national level program evaluation, with a concentrated focus on the multi-level impact of youth behavioral health systems reform. Dr. Walrath has a broad range of research expertise − largely devoted to underserved public sector youth population including process and outcome evaluation design and implementation, research design, instrument development, and data analysis. She earned her doctoral degree in community psychology and master’s degree in public mental health. She has been involved in local, state, and national longitudinal evaluation efforts to assess the impact of behavioral health interventions, school-based mental health interventions, and community-based health and mental health prevention and treatment programs. In addition, she has experience in the development and implementation of a statewide screening initiative to assess the health, mental health, education, family, and substance use related needs of youth entering the juvenile justice system; she also has considerable experience in measurement design and testing.

Dr. Walrath is an adjunct faculty member at the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Walrath has spent recent years applying her training and experience to the national evaluations of four large youth health and behavioral health initiatives funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program (CMHI); the Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Youth Suicide Prevention and Early Intervention Program; the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative (NCTSI), and, most recently, the Native Aspirations Tribal Suicide and Bullying Prevention project. These projects have provided an opportunity for an in-depth understanding of the prevention and treatment of health and behavioral health problems in traditionally high-risk and underserved youth populations.

Dr. Walrath’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the American Journal of Public Health, The Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, the Journal of Behavioral Health Services Research, , and the Journal of Child and Family Studies. Dr. Walrath is on the editorial review board of the Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, the Journal of Behavioral Health Services Research, and Psychological Services.

Chamberlain Diala, PhD.
Dr. Diala currently serves as a Director with The Akili Group – an independent consulting firm in Maryland that provides technical assistance, capacity development and training for domestic and international health programs. Dr. Diala has over 15 years of experience in health program development, design, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation in domestic and international settings.

Currently, Dr. Diala provides conceptual leadership and technical guidance to initiatives that include the development of a strategic plan for substance use, with focus on injection drug users, their associated co-infection with HIV and Hepatitis. Emphasis is also placed on community re-entry populations and men who have sex with men (MSM). Dr. Diala combines his expertise with that of support services to ensure highest technical standards.

Dr. Diala is a health services researcher with a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Management from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. He has continuing programs, evaluation, and research interests in health disparities, behavior change communication, social marketing, HIV prevention, care and treatment, mental health, substance use, youth leadership and community economic development. Dr. Diala has managed domestic programs in many states and direct work experience in Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia and others.

Suzanne Martin, Ph.D.
Dr. Martin is president of Martin Research Consulting. Dr. Martin has over 15 years experience actively conducting all aspects of the research process. She has completed youth research in the for profit and not for profit arenas conducting research on toys, clothing, social marketing, materialism, media use, tobacco advertisements, intergenerational  programs, substance abuse, mental health, etc.  Dr. Martin spent time as a post doctoral fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, working with behavior change expert, Dr. Martin Fishbein, conducting research on teens, sex and the media. Previously she worked for Just Kid Inc. and Harris Interactive, one of the nationally recognized market research leaders, taking part in hundreds of youth centered projects.  She earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and an M.S. in Marketing from the University of Arizona.