The Maryland Early Intervention Program (MEIP) supports individuals, families, and professionals who may encounter early psychosis through four components:

Outreach & Education
Clinical Services

Consultation Services

Training & Implementation Support
Using an integrated approach, the Maryland EIP is committed to reducing disability by equipping young individuals and their families with tools to address their health and mental health needs, move successfully through the developmental stages of growth, and establish a life of their choosing.
MEIP Programmatic and Clinical Leadership
Melanie Bennett, PhD, directs the Maryland EIP Program and leads the Training and Implementation Support Services team. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Bennett's research is focused on the treatment of alcohol, drug, and nicotine dependence in people with schizophrenia and other forms of severe mental illness.
Katrina Bowles, LCSW-C, is the Team Leader for the Recovery After Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE) Connection Program.
Howard Goldman, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he is the Director of the Behavioral Health Systems Improvement Collaborative. The Collaborative supports the Maryland EIP Program through training and assistance with program implementation. Dr. Goldman works with clinics, treatment systems, and service providers on developing models for continued financing of early intervention services. He is an expert in evaluating mental health services and in behavioral health financing programs and policies.
Ann Hackman, MD, is the Division Director for the University of Maryland Department of Psychiatry’s Community Psychiatry Division, Associate Professor with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine, and is a board certified psychiatrist, working with the University of Maryland’s RA1SE Connection Program. Dr. Hackman also participates as part of On Our Own of Maryland’s Anti-Stigma Project. Her areas of interest include recovery-oriented work with people living with serious and persistent mental illness and with first episode psychosis, addressing stigma, and the interface between community psychiatry and the criminal justice system.
Nancy Lever, PhD, is a Co-director of Outreach and Education initiatives of the Maryland EIP Program. She is an Associate Professor and Co-director of the National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Lever has a particular focus on training, outreach, dissemination, and resource advancement, especially as it relates to promoting high-quality, evidence-based research, training, policy, and practice in school mental health.
Pamela Rakhshan Rouhakhtar, PhD, is the Co-director of the Strive for Wellness Clinic, an early identification and intervention clinic within the Maryland EIP Program. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Dr. Rakhshan Rouhakhtar's research interests include validation and development of psychosis spectrum assessments, application of advanced quantitative methods in the study of early psychosis assessment, and studying the role of cultural and contextual factors – particularly race – in our understanding of the psychosis construct, as well as illness presentation, course, and treatment.
Gloria Reeves, MD, is the Co-director of the Strive for Wellness Clinic, an early identification and intervention clinic within the Maryland EIP Program. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Reeves's research interests include childhood aggression, polypharmacy issues in child psychiatry, youth violence prevention, and neuroimaging.
Cindy Schaeffer, PhD, is a Co-director of Outreach and Education initiatives of the Maryland EIP Program. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and core faculty at the National Center for School Mental Health. Dr. Schaeffer's research focuses on developing, evaluating, and ensuring the successful real-world implementation of interventions for youth involved in, or at high risk of involvement in, the juvenile justice and child protective service (CPS) systems. She is particularly interested in family, school, and peer-based interventions that target issues such as school dropout and expulsion; deviant peer relationships; teen and parent substance abuse; low parenting skill; and family conflict / family violence.
Beth Steger, LCSW-C, is the Team Leader for the Maryland Psychiatric
Research Center's First Episode Clinic.
Max Wolcott, LCSW-C, is the Team Leader for the Johns Hopkins Early Psychosis Intervention Clinic (EPIC) & EPIC-RAISE program.
