Olga Price, Ph.D.

Olga Acosta Price is an Associate Professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health. She is also Director of the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, a national resource and technical assistance center committed to building effective school health programs. A passionate advocate of school-based mental health services, Olga Acosta Price has dedicated her formal training in clinical psychology to improving the lives of young people. “My experiences working with children, youth and families have driven my desire to understand resilience and to approach our work together from a strength-based perspective,” she says. Giving voice to the concerns of young people is an essential priority for her. “I thoroughly enjoy creating opportunities for youth to share their insights. They don’t hesitate to tell those of us who develop systems of care that we are clueless about what the world is really like for them.” Prior to joining the faculty in 2006, Professor Price was director of the School Mental Health Program at the Department of Mental Health in Washington, DC, where she earned the Employee of the Year award. She was also an assistant professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine and served as associate director of the Center for School Mental Health Assistance, a national technical assistance center. In that latter capacity, she helped to promote the development of school-based mental health services across the country.