Stacy Sterling, DrPH, MSW

Stacy Sterling, DrPH, MSW, MPH, is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, a senior research scientist with the Division of Research and co-directs the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Center for Addiction and Mental Health Research. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Systems Science of the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Her research interests include developing systems for implementing evidence-based, integrated, behavioral health services into primary care, adolescent behavioral health prevention and early intervention, and alcohol and drug and mental health treatment outcomes and access.

Dr. Sterling is a standing member of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Addiction (NIAAA) Clinical, Treatment and Health Services Research study section.

She is the principal investigator of multiple studies including: a trial funded by the Hilton Foundation of single vs. multisession screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for adolescents and parents in pediatric primary care; a NIAAA adolescent SBIRT trial in pediatric primary care; an NIAAA trial of an innovative alcohol telemedicine consultation intervention, studies of the implementation and outcomes of large-scale alcohol screening and brief intervention, and an NIAAA survey of pediatrician attitudes toward and practices of adolescent behavioral-health risk screening and intervention. Dr. Sterling was co-investigator of a cluster-randomized trial of SBIRT for unhealthy alcohol use in adult medicine in Kaiser Permanente Northern California. She was principal investigator of a study funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to develop predictive models for adolescent substance use problem development, and of studies funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Center for Substance Abuse Treatment of adolescents in drug and alcohol treatment. She co-authored a widely disseminated issue brief, “Reducing Risky Alcohol Use: What Health Care Systems Can Do” and has developed nationally disseminated educational materials including NIAAA’s “The Healthcare Professional’s Core Resource on Alcohol, ‘Promote Practice Change: Take Manageable Steps Toward Better Care’.” Dr. Sterling is the KPNC Training Director for an innovative hybrid National Institute of Mental Health, Mental Health Research Network T32 fellowship program.

She received her doctoral training at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, and her master’s degrees in Public Health and Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley.