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About the Center

The UCLA STAND for Community Colleges Innovation Center is part of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge, a campuswide initiative to cut the global burden of depression on human health and well-being in half by 2050, and builds upon UCLA's commitment to improve treatments and make them more accessible. 

The Center was established in 2022 with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health as one of 14 NIMH Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) Research Centers. It is led by Michelle Craske, PhD, distinguished professor of psychology and of psychiatry & biobehavioral Sciences, and Kate Wolitzky-Taylor, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry.

Currently, the Center's research activities involve four primary projects optimizing the effectiveness and implementation of STAND in a traditionally underserved community college student population. In addition to specific research projects, the Center pursues stakeholder engagement, training and mentorship, better understanding the needs of other California Community Colleges and exploring pathways for sustainability and adoption of the STAND model by other community colleges.

Learn more about the Center's aims & structure

Center research is supported by a National Institute of Mental Health grant (P50MH126337). The content on this site is solely the responsibility of its authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The Center is focused on the student population of East Los Angeles College, building on a relationship established through a demonstration project (2021-2023), called STAND at ELAC and generously funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health under the Public Partnership for Wellbeing.