Autumn HarnishGraduate Student

Field of Interest

Autumn is interested broadly in stigma, vulnerable populations, and access to healthcare. More specifically she is interested in how people with co-occurring disorders and/or intersecting identities experience stigma and how stigma, along with other community-level factors, affect people and their access to care. She is interested in working with individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, people suffering from homelessness, individuals who have been involved in the criminal justice system, and Veterans. Ultimately, she wants to address and remedy the barriers that keep these people from getting the care they deserve through working with the community and implementing programs to bridge the gaps in community care and healthcare overall.

Education and Relevant Experience

Autumn received her BA from Rutgers University – New Brunswick in 2014 where she double majored in History and Psychology and received departmental honors in History. While at Rutgers she also performed volunteer work in four different psychology labs throughout her academic career. She worked in three clinical psychology labs: The Personalized Depression Prevention Project, The Institute for Research on Youth Depression and Prevention, both under the supervision Dr. Jami Young, and the Emotion and Psychopathology Lab, where she served as one of the lab managers under the supervision of Dr. Edward Selby. She also worked in a social psychology lab, the Stigma, Health, and Close Relationships Lab, under the supervision of Dr. Diana Sanchez.

Autumn then worked for over two years as Project Coordinator at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in which she managed many Veterans Affairs studies at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VA Medical Center in Bedford, Massachusetts. She served as Site Project Coordinator for a VA funded multi-site randomized control trial working with a population of homeless Veterans who have been involved with the criminal justice system. She also served as the Project Coordinator for a VA funded Quality Improvement project and for a VA funded multi-site study; in both studies wraparound treatment was provided to Veterans with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Working with individuals suffering from co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders in Massachusetts led Autumn to want to continue working with these people. She was also exposed to working with Veterans, those who were involved with the criminal justice system, and people suffering from homelessness and she plans to continue working with these populations in the future as well.

She is now a graduate student in Human Development and Family Studies at the School of Human Ecology and her advisor is Dr. Kristin Litzelman.

Awards and Publications

Recipient of a University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School Fellowship

Harnish, A., Sawh, L., Simmons, M., Duffy, M., Smelson, D. (In preparation). Barriers and Facilitators to Obtaining and Maintaining Housing While Adhering to a Housing First Approach and Implementing a Wraparound Co-occurring Disorders Treatment Intervention.

Trojano, M., Christopher, P., Pinals, D.A., Harnish, A., & Smelson, D. (2017). Perceptions of Voluntary Consent among Jail Diverted Veterans with Co-Occurring Disorders. Behavioral Sciences & the Law.

McCullough, M., Simmons, M., Yakovchenko, V., Harnish, A., McInnes, D.K., Gabrielian, S., Smith, J., & Smelson, D. (Under review). Operationalizing Facilitation in the Implementation of Treatment for Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders in VA Homelessness Programs. Medical Care.

Harnish, A., Corrigan, P., Byrne, T., Pinals, D.A., Rodriguez, S., & Smelson, D. Substance Use and Mental Health Stigma in Veterans with Co-occurring Disorders. Journal of Dual Diagnosis, 12(3-4), 238-243.

Corrigan, P., Schomerus, G., Shuman, V., Kraus, D., Perlick, D., Harnish, A., Kulesza, M., Kane-Willis, K., Qin, S., & Smelson, D. (In press). Developing a Research Agenda for Understanding the Stigma of Addictions Part I: Lessons from the Mental Health Stigma Literature. The American Journal on Addictions.

Corrigan, P., Schomerus, G., Shuman, V., Kraus, D., Perlick, D., Harnish, A., Kulesza, M., Kane-Willis, K., Qin, S., & Smelson, D. (2016). Developing a Research Agenda for Reducing the Stigma of Addictions Part II: Lessons from the Mental Health Stigma Literature. The American Journal on Addictions.