Nicoleta Serban, Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), will serve on a new commission examining how the state of Georgia can improve behavioral health services.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s office announced the formation of the 24-member Georgia Behavioral Health Reform & Innovation Commission in September. Appointees are state legislators, judges, subject matter experts, and citizens. The commission will review Georgia's behavioral health system, including access to and delivery of critical mental health services, and provide recommendations for reform and innovation.

Serban's primary role on the commission is as a member of the Workforce and System Development Subcommittee chaired by Gwen Skinner, vice president of Operations for Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health.

"Serving on the commission is an excellent opportunity to inform policy and reform using health analytics," Serban said.

Serban’s research focuses, in part, on health care delivery and health policy. Recently, she and her research group have examined children's Medicaid data nationwide, including access to mental health services. Serban's research has also discovered gaps in behavioral therapy for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In 2018, Serban and collaborators from Emory University and Georgia HOPE received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to research the delivery of mental and behavioral health services for children at school and at home.

She leads the Health Analytics initiative, a collaborative network of clinicians, health care providers, and public health entities. Serban has also authored or co-authored two books about the health care system, "Understanding and Managing the Complexity of Healthcare," published by MIT Press and "Healthcare System Access: Measurement, Inference, and Intervention," published by Wiley.

In 2019, the Georgia General Assembly allocated $20 million for local health departments to treat mental health issues and doubled funding for APEX, a school-based counseling services program.

Read the full announcement about the commission on the Office of the Governor website.