In this special episode of season 3, Dr. U. Grant Baldwin, Jr., DBH, Director of the Doctor of Behavioral Health program at Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies, reflects on the last decade, discussing how CGI has addressed the unmet educational needs in behavioral health and the impact this has had on transforming healthcare outcomes. Our special guests look to the future exciting plans for the next 10 years as CGI continues to lead the way in training integrated care professionals.
Special Guests:
Dr. Janet Cummings, Psy. D., is the daughter of Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings, an internationally-recognized psychologist and a clinical social worker. Determined not to be a mental health professional, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Pre-med (with a minor in Genetics/Molecular Biology) and Linguistics (with a Classical Greek minor). She went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Linguistics, with a Psycholinguistics emphasis, before deciding to earn a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University, which she completed in 1992. During her Bachelor’s and Master’s studies, Janet owned and operated a sewing business and taught English as a Second Language.While at the School of Professional Psychology, Janet participated in an experimental program aimed at preparing students for the possibility of prescription privileges for psychologists. In this experimental program, she took the same Pharmacology and Psychopharmacology classes as students in Wright State University’s medical school. Because of her Pre-med background, she excelled in her Pharmacology studies, as well as in Biological Psychology and Neuranatomy/Neurology.
Janet completed her internship and post-doctoral residency at Arizona Biodyne, and remained as a staff psychologist there for several years. With supervision from some top Biodyne psychotherapists, she became a master psychotherapist and expert in the Biodyne Model. She has continued to utilize the Biodyne Model exclusively in her private practice and other work settings.
In 2010, Janet moved from Scottsdale, Arizona to Reno, Nevada in order to be close to the headquarters of The Nicholas & Dorothy Cummings Foundation, which she has served as its President since its inception in 1995. Under Janet’s direction, The Nicholas & Dorothy Cummings Foundation has sponsored many projects aimed at furthering the integration of behavioral health into primary care medicine, including The Cummings Psyche Award (the premier scientific award in the mental health field, with a $50,000 prize) and the launching of the first Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) Program at Arizona State University.
Dr. Cara English, DBH is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Academic Officer of Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies (CGI) and Founder of Terra’s Tribe, a maternal mental health advocacy organization in Phoenix, Arizona. Dr. English spearheaded a perinatal behavioral health integration project at Willow Birth Center from 2016 to 2020 that received international acclaim through the publication of outcomes in the International Journal of Integrated Care. Dr. English served as Vice-President of the Postpartum Support International – Arizona Chapter Founding Board of Directors and co-chaired the Education and Legislative Advocacy Committees. She currently serves on the Maternal Mortality Review Program and the Maternal Health Taskforce for the State of Arizona. She served as one of three Arizonan 2020 Mom Nonprofit Policy Fellows in 2021. For her work to establish Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies, Cara was awarded the Psyche Award from the Nicholas & Dorothy Cummings Foundation in 2018 and is more recently the recipient of the 2022 Sierra Tucson Compassion Recognition for her work to improve perinatal mental health integration in Arizona.
