PolicyLab

Molly Davis is a faculty member at PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and a licensed clinical psychologist in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at CHOP. Additionally, she is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. 

The overarching aim of Dr. Davis’ research is to produce findings that can be used to improve the effectiveness and implementation of identification, prevention, and intervention programs for youth and families from underserved communities, with a particular focus on programs targeting depression and suicide risk. Dr. Davis has engaged in research across the translational research spectrum, allowing her to develop expertise in developmental psychopathology, prevention/intervention and implementation science research. She is particularly passionate about narrowing the research-to-practice gap in primary care and schools by identifying depression and suicide risk via screening and implementing evidence-based prevention programs to address risk. Dr. Davis is also invested in identifying barriers and facilitators to implementing evidence-based behavioral health practices that are common across different settings and clinical practices to accelerate implementation. 

Currently, Dr. Davis works primarily on an Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy and implementation of a telehealth-delivered group depression prevention program (Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training; IPT-AST) for adolescents in schools. She is also collaborating with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and CHOP on an National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded P50 Center, which focuses on testing novel suicide and depression prevention approaches in pediatric primary care, most of which involve digital mental health tools. Dr. Davis has also been studying depression screening, including risk rates and screening administration patterns, in pediatric primary care.

Dr. Davis received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia (UGA). At UGA, she also earned a Quantitative Methods in Family Science Certificate, which provided her with training in advanced statistics. She completed her predoctoral clinical internship on the integrated behavioral health track at CHOP.