Profiles

Dr. Alexander S. Young is a psychiatrist, medical educator, clinical and health services researcher, and physician executive. He is Professor at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. He is Associate Director of Health Services for the VA Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center in Southern California. Dr. Young is board certified in psychiatry and clinical informatics. A nationally recognized leader in mental health services research and the care of serious mental illness, he has led research and education studying and improving the quality of healthcare, including the structure, processes and outcomes of care. He has worked in implementation science, healthcare treatment and health informatics. He has made especially important contributions to the care of the underserved. Dr. Young’s clinical work and research focus on the care of individuals with serious mental illness, with particular attention to improving the care provided to underserved populations and communities. He was co-founder of the schizophrenia program at UCLA, has founded community clozapine clinics, and was lead for a new VA national psychosis consultation service. He has had continuous national research funding since 2000, and leadership roles in training programs, research centers and clinical service delivery. He has led national multi-site programs to improve the care of individuals with serious mental illness. These have used informatics and implementation science to improve information available to clinicians, and clinician knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Dr. Young has a personal long-standing commitment to community psychiatry and is deeply dedicated to a spectrum of scholarship to educating the next generation of behavioral health care clinicians and scientists, to health equity, and to improving access to care for individuals with psychiatric illness and their families.