Jurgen Unutzer

Dr. Jürgen Unützer is a globally recognized leader in psychiatry, public health, and integrated care. As Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington, and with adjunct roles in Global Health and Health Services, Dr. Unützer’s multidisciplinary approach has had transformative impact on the integration of mental and physical healthcare. His work bridges psychiatry, public health, and systems science to address one of the greatest challenges in modern healthcare: providing accessible, evidence-based mental health care to diverse and underserved populations. Dr. Unützer earned his MD from Vanderbilt University, an MA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, and an MPH from the University of Washington. His postdoctoral training included fellowships in Geriatric Psychiatry at UCLA and in Primary Care Psychiatry at UW. This broad educational foundation laid the groundwork for his innovative work combining clinical psychiatry with healthcare systems design and implementation science. His landmark contribution to the field was as Principal Investigator of the IMPACT trial, the first large-scale randomized controlled trial of collaborative care for depression in primary care. This model proved that integrated mental health services in primary care settings lead to substantially better patient outcomes and is now considered a gold standard in mental health delivery. He built on this success by founding the AIMS (Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions) Center at UW in 2004, which has since trained over 6,000 clinicians worldwide in collaborative care approaches. These models have been adopted in more than 80 randomized trials across diverse settings, from rural U.S. communities to low-resource countries. In recent years, Dr. Unützer has focused on workforce development, implementation science, and cross-sector partnerships. He emphasizes the need to “move mental health upstream,” with targeted interventions such as perinatal mental health support for high-risk families. His vision of system-level mental health reform has informed policies across various levels of governance—locally, nationally, and globally. A dedicated mentor, Dr. Unützer trains the next generation of public health and mental health professionals and serves as Director of the Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions. He has advised global health organizations, including the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and continues to advocate for sustainable and scalable mental health solutions through research, clinical leadership, and policy engagement. Dr. Unützer’s impact is recognized by numerous prestigious awards, including those from the American Psychiatric Association, the American Foundation for Aging Research, and the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry. Through his scientific contributions, policy leadership, and capacity-building initiatives, he continues to shape the global conversation on mental health integration and access.