Two faculty members in Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences—Colleen Cowperthwaite, PhD, and Jill Howard, PhD—recently completed the Duke Clinical Leadership Program.
This six-month longitudinal leadership program empowers new or emerging faculty leaders within Duke Health with increased awareness of health system operations and strategy, and practical leadership and management skill development. The program is a partnership between the School of Medicine and Duke University Health System.
Read on to learn more about their projects.
Improving Referral Pathways and Access to Brief DBT Services Following Ambulatory Suicide Risk Screening (Cowperthwait)
As Duke Health expanded ambulatory suicide risk screening, referrals to the DBT program increased substantially, while brief DBT skills groups remained underenrolled. Cowperthwait partnered with the DBT Consultation Team and colleagues across behavioral health and ambulatory operations to better understand barriers in referral, triage, and scheduling processes.
The project led to several workflow improvements aimed at making it easier for patients to access the right level of DBT care while reducing administrative burden and making better use of existing program resources.
Cowperthwait’s work was honored with a 2026 Thomas M. Gorrie Clinical Leadership Impact Award, recognizing projects that demonstrate effective team management, a thorough and collaborative discovery process, and successful implementation within a complex healthcare system.
Streamlining Screening Processes to Improve Patient Access and Experience at the Duke Autism Clinic (Howard)
Access to autism diagnostic evaluations is often delayed by lengthy wait times and burdensome intake procedures, including paper-based screening processes that create administrative inefficiencies and barriers for families.
A multidisciplinary team at the Duke Autism Clinic used process improvement methods to redesign the screening workflow, reducing the questionnaire from 10 pages to 1.5 pages and developing a mobile-friendly, HIPAA-compliant digital version through Qualtrics. This initiative is expected to reduce administrative burden and delays in care coordination while improving accessibility, efficiency, and the patient and family experience.
Learn more about DCLP and the 2026 cohort.
Photos by Mark Dolejs, Duke University School of Medicine, Office of Strategic Communications.