Professor, Social Work Department
Wayne State University
Amy Watson, PhD is a professor in the School of Social Work at Wayne State University. Trained as a social worker and mental health services researcher, she has focused on the experiences of and interventions to reduce the involvement of people with serious mental illnesses in the criminal legal system. This has included research on police response to mental health crises, the Crisis Intervention Team model, mental health courts and re-entry programs. Her current work is focused on developing crisis response services that do not require law enforcement involvement.
Watson recently served as president of the CIT International Board of Directors and is currently president of the board of Crisis Intervention Programs and Training. She has authored over 100 publications. Earlier in her career, she worked as a probation officer on a team serving clients with serious mental illnesses.