Marleen Wong
David Lawrence Stein/Violet Goldberg Sachs Professor of Mental Health; Senior Vice Dean of Field Education; Clinical Professor of Social Work Department of Children Youth and FamiliesUniversity of Southern CaliforniaBiography
Dr. Marleen Wong is senior vice dean, David Lawrence Stein/Violet Goldberg Sachs Endowed Professor of Mental Health, Executive Director of the USC Telehealth Clinic, Clinical Advisor for the Family Nurse Practitioner Program and Fellow in the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. She also serves as the Director of Field Education at the University Park Campus and the Virtual Academic Center with students based all over the United States. In addition to her work in field education, Dr. Wong is an internationally recognized mental health expert. Called one of the “pre-eminent experts in school crisis and recovery” by the White House and the “architect of school-safety programs” by the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Wong has developed mental health recovery programs, crisis and disaster training for school districts and law enforcement in the United States, Canada, Israel and Asia. Formerly director of mental health services, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and director of school crisis and intervention at the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress at the UCLA David Geffen Medical Center, Dr. Wong is one of the original developers of the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools, an evidence-based program using skill-based group intervention to relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and general anxiety among children traumatized by violence, bullying and trauma. She is also one of the developers of Psychological First Aid/Listen, Protect, Connect – Model and Teach (PFA/LPC) – a school-based universal prevention intervention for educators and school staffs (non-mental health professionals) to use in supporting students after crises or disasters – that is now being implemented across the United States.


