Nancy Grote, research associate professor, retired Oct. 1, 2016, but faculty, students and staff will likely see her on campus during the coming months as she works on state and local research projects and consults on several federal grants. A retirement party to celebrate her long career and accomplishments is being planned; date to be announced.
“Nancy has been a fantastic colleague and an amazing citizen of the School and she will be dearly missed,” said associate dean for research Karina Walters. “We thank her for her service to the School and the profession, and for her leadership and grace.”
In an email to School faculty and staff, Grote recognized numerous individuals she worked with over the years. “I am so grateful to all of you who provided a nourishing, stimulating and fun home for me, my service and work over the last 10 years,” she wrote. “Serving on various School of Social Work committees…taught me a lot about spirited collaboration and helped me develop a deep appreciation of differences and similarities in outlook.” Grote has been at the School for 10 years.
Grote is principal investigator of the National Institute of Mental Health-funded MOMCare Program, a centerpiece of her research that develops culturally relevant, evidence-based treatments for perinatal depression experienced by socio-economically disadvantaged women. Medicaid expansion in Washington state will support a pilot implementation of the MOMCare intervention in the Seattle-King County public health system. Additional funding from the Mark Torrance Foundation will pay for MOMCare training and supervision for three years.
Grote’s research also focused on strategies to reduce racial/ethnic and socio-economic disparities in access to, and use of, mental health care; links between chronic and acute stress and psychological distress in socio-economically disadvantaged women; and predictors of individual and couples distress during the transition to parenthood.
Grote received an MSW and a doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. In addition, she was awarded a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatric epidemiology at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. At the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, Grote taught evidence-based treatments, such as interpersonal psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and motivational interviewing, to MSW students for 7 years and achieved tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.
When at the University of Pittsburgh, she was also the recipient of a NIMH Career Development Award to develop and implement culturally relevant interpersonal psychotherapy for perinatal depression for socio-economically disadvantaged pregnant women on Medicaid in a large public care obstetrics and gynecology clinic.