Kara Dean-Assael is Director of the McSilver Institute’s Clinical Education and Innovation Department and the Clinical Leader for the Community Technical Assistance Center of New York State (CTAC). She was the co-director of an NIMH-funded project that is now known as the 4 Rs and 2 Ss for Strengthening Families Program and has spent years training clinicians and supervisors on how to utilize the model in their settings.
As an innovator, Dr. Dean-Assael develops, coordinates, manages, produces, and facilitates various programs, projects, and trainings, both locally and nationally. In 2006, she was a collaborative member of a research team to develop the nationally known evidence-based treatment, the “4 Rs and 2 Ss for Strengthening Families Program.”
She also co-founded the 501c3 Fareground, Inc. in 2012, a project that focuses on food justice in Dutchess County, NY. She is passionate about helping to create and disseminate programs and practices to improve family mental health and outcomes for families, children, and adults. She was appointed as a member of the Commission on Human Rights in the City of Beacon. Dr. Dean-Assael is passionate about helping to create and disseminate programs and practices to improve equity and family mental health and outcomes for families, children, and adults.
Dr. Dean-Assael holds an MSW degree from Columbia University School of Social Work (2001) and a Doctorate in Clinical Social Work from New York University (2020) and has been working with children and families since 1997. As a West Virginian native, she’s attached to her roots of resilience and family.