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Hildie Cohen

Pronouns: She/Her

Senior Research Director
Hildie is an experienced leader and evaluator with subject matter expertise in behavioral health and data governance.

Hildie is a senior research director in the Health Sciences department at NORC at the University of Chicago with over 10 years of experience in project management, training, evaluation, and data governance with subject matter expertise in substance use prevention and intervention strategies. For five years, Hildie served as the project manager for the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Adolescent SBIRT Initiative where she oversaw the development and dissemination of a comprehensive curriculum to train current and future healthcare practitioners to have conversations with youth about substance use. For three years, she coordinated a monthly Learning Collaborative for educators where educators shared best practices, barriers and facilitators, and innovative ideas implementing adolescent SBIRT curriculum. The project trained over 25,000 individuals and involved over 600 universities/colleges and organizations. As part of this work, Hildie also directed a large-scale evaluation of the impact of the training on learner outcomes.

Additionally, Hildie serves as the Learning Community lead for AHRQ’s Managing Unhealthy Alcohol Use in Primary Care where she coordinates two monthly workgroups and an online resource sharing platform for six grantee teams implementing SBIRT and medication-assisted treatment strategies in primary care settings.

She also directs many other training, technical assistance, and evaluation projects that help organizations and institutions implement SBIRT and/or prevention and intervention programs for a variety of mental health concerns such as suicide risk. Hildie manages a project to create and disseminate suicide prevention materials for adults working with LGBTQIA+ youth. She also serves as the Evaluation Manager for ND HOPES, a suicide prevention project managed by the University of North Dakota and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with the goal to reduce suicide morbidity and mortality by 10% over five years in western North Dakota through raising awareness, training, and providing enhanced services.

Hildie has a Master’s in Sociology from Northwestern University and a Master’s in Education in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Hildie has a particular interest in community-based participatory research and serves as a Board Member for the American Evaluation Association’s Arizona Chapter (AZEnet).

Education

MEd

University of Illinois at Chicago

MA

Northwestern University

BA

Emory University

Project Contributions

Surveys of Women

Tracking reproductive health access, contraceptive use, and abortion prevalence in nine states

Client:

Private foundation focused on education and health issues

Suicide Prevention Resource Guides to Support LGBTQIA2S+ Youth

Advancing a strengths-based approach to suicide prevention for LGBTQIA2S+ youth through resource and focus guides

Client:

Suicide Prevention Resource Center

Adolescent SBIRT Initiative: Preparing the Health Professional Workforce

Preparing Health Professionals to Screen and Intervene for Youth Substance Use and Mental Health Risk

Client:

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

Managing Unhealthy Alcohol Use in Primary Care

Implementation and evaluation of screening, intervention, and treatment for unhealthy alcohol use

Funder:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

SBIRT Community Outreach in New York State

Implementing a novel Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) model to serve disproportionately affected populations

Client:

Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration

Jointly Addressing Substance Use and Suicide in Colorado

First integrated SBIRT and suicide care curriculum to support Colorado trainers and health professionals

Client:

Peer Assistance Services, Inc.

New York State Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Implementation Manual

Developing a resource to support SBIRT implementation in a variety of settings with diverse communities

Funder:

New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS)

ND HOPES Suicide Prevention Initiative

Implementing a multi-tiered approach to suicide prevention in western North Dakota

Client:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

ND THRIVES: North Dakota Rural and Tribal Suicide Care Initiative

Implementing community-based suicide prevention program for youth in north-central and northeastern North Dakota

Funder:

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration