Heather Ringeisen

Heather Ringeisen, PhD, is the Vice President, Health of Populations at RTI. She has more than 20 years of experience as a mental health researcher with a special interest in serious mental illness and children involved in the child welfare system.

Dr. Ringeisen serves as the principal investigator of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, an Administration for Children and Families (ACF)-funded longitudinal study that examines the physical, behavioral, and emotional well-being of children involved in the child welfare system.

She also recently led RTI’s efforts on the Mental and Substance Use Disorders Prevalence Study (MDPS), also referred to as the National Survey of Mental Health. The MDPS, which was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), provided up-to-date national estimates of specific mental health and substance use disorders among U.S. adults. The study included a nationally representative sample of households and prisons, as well as local samples of homeless shelters and state psychiatric hospitals. For the project, Dr. Ringeisen was the contact principal investigator, serving as lead client contact, leading substantive input and coordination, and ensuring the quality of project work.

Dr. Ringeisen has served on multiple federal committees established to coordinate activities related to child welfare and mental health. Most recently, she was a member of the National Center for Health Statistics’ Child Technical Expert Panel for the redesign of the National Health Interview Survey.

Prior to joining RTI in 2006, Dr. Ringeisen was the Chief of the Child and Adolescent Services Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). She previously received the Society for Research in Child Development and American Association for Advancement of Science policy fellowship.