Roberta C. Churchill, M.A., LMHC, is a senior criminal justice associate at Advocates for Human Potential (AHP) with nearly 25 years of experience working with justice-involved individuals living with substance use disorders, mental health disorders, co-occurring disorders, trauma, and criminogenic needs. Ms. Churchill has extensive knowledge of evidence-based and promising practices in both research and implementation, and she uses her experience with and knowledge of the justice system and behavioral health services to provide training and technical assistance (T/TA) to criminal justice agencies regarding treatment, supervision, program implementation and fidelity management. Since coming to AHP, she has researched medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and withdrawal guidelines for jails and the pre-trial population, and she is cultivating a network of federally funded Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) programs and MAT professionals to encourage collaboration and peer mentoring. Ms. Churchill spearheaded the development of the Fidelity Assessment Initiative (FAI), which evaluates RSAT program compliance with the Promising Practices Guidelines for RSAT programs, and expanded the initiative to add methods to match RSAT program needs with T/TA. 

In her extensive background in behavioral health treatment, Ms. Churchill has developed and managed programs, initiated community networks, and conducted outreach work doing at-home case management and therapy with young adults at risk and people living with HIV. Since 1996, she has worked with justice-involved individuals who have multiple needs, developing and supervising MAT, RSAT, and gender-specific programming. She has worked with various correctional facilities, community correction sites, and treatment courts. As a licensed mental health counselor, Ms. Churchill has provided clinical supervision, training, and consultation for more than 20 years in the areas of evidence-based interventions and principles, including motivational interviewing and risk/need/responsivity assessment. Throughout her career, she has worked with a variety of vulnerable populations, including women and children who had survived sexual abuse, developmentally disabled adults living in the community for the first time after a life of institutionalization, and people with opioid use disorder (OUD) newly released from jail on MAT. Ms. Churchill holds an M.A. in counseling psychology from Lesley University.

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