Kathy Gracey, M.Ed.

Kathy Gracey received her MEd in Counseling Psychology from the University of Mississippi. She has been a member of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences since 1992. She serves as the administrator, responsible for oversight and implementation, of multiple programs serving at-risk children, youth and families.

Ms. Gracey has been the key person with the Vanderbilt Center of Excellence to assist the Department of Children's Services (DCS) with the implementation of a statewide assessment intervention for all children/families in DCS custody along with the implementation of a statewide assessment for non-custody families. She has assisted with the roll-out of the Juvenile Justice Assessment  that has been implemented in approximately 58 juvenile justice courts, training over 300 court staff in Tennessee. This entailed significant collaboration within the Tennessee state system (i.e., Department of Children's Services, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services along with the Administrative Office of the Courts, which included multi-regional training, networking, and on-going technical assistance. Additional Statewide system improvement initiatives  in collaboration with the TN Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services are projects that support evidence-based practices for our TN System of Care and TN First Episode Psychosis initiative.

Ms. Gracey's research interests include trauma, system improvement, child welfare and juvenile justice.

In 1986, Ms. Gracey moved to Nashville to become Director of a not-for-profit organization that served youth that had experienced sexual trauma. She has been implementing programs at Vanderbilt for at-risk youth and families an youth who have experienced complex trauma for the last 29 years.