Deborah Moon

Assistant Professor

Dr. Deborah Moon is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work with a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on developing, adapting, implementing, and evaluating interventions designed to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and promote mental health among marginalized families in under-resourced communities. Informed by Implementation Science and Health and Human Services Research, she is particularly interested in using stakeholder-engaged approaches to identify effective strategies to implement and sustain such interventions in community organizations that are traditionally underutilized in the promotion of mental health, including primary healthcare facilities, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), schools, churches, and libraries, etc. Dr. Moon received a bachelor's degree in Biological Engineering from Handong Global University in South Korea, a master's degree in Music Therapy from New York University and in Social Work from the University of Maryland, and a Ph.D. in Social Welfare at the University of Kansas.

Research Interests

Child and youth flourishing
Mental Health & Trauma
Prevention of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Integrated health
Implementation science
Community-Engaged Research

Accepting Graduate Students: Yes

Current Research Projects

To learn more about Dr. Moon’s research, please visit the FLOURISH (Flourishing Lives through OUR Innate Strengths to Heal) research lab

Representative Publications

Moon, D. J., Nichols, C. B., Zhang, Y., Cruce, A., Haran, H., Sgourakis, A., Lee, H., & Johnson-Motoyama, M. (2023). Engagement Measures in Maltreatment Prevention Studies: A Scoping Review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380231188070
Moon, D. J., Johnson-Motoyama, M., Nichols, C. B., Rolock, N., Haran, H., & Bai, R. (2022). Collaborative fidelity assessment planning for the evaluation of a community-based maltreatment prevention model: The family success network (FSN). Children and youth services review, 137, 106457.
Moon, D. J., Johnson-Motoyama, M. & Nichols, C. B.* (2021). Rural primary care organizational change toward trauma-informed integrated primary care: A realist evaluation. Global Implementation Research and Practice. 1(3), 160-171. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43477-021-00018-z
Moon, D. J., Lauer, S., & Unell, B. (2021). Behavior Checker® staff training for positive parenting in primary care: Changes in the knowledge, attitudes, and confidence. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 30(4), 932-940. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01917-3
Moon, D. J., & Ballard, A. (2020) The comprehensive framework for integrated healthcare implementation: A realist evaluation of positive parenting in rural primary care in the U.S. Journal of Integrated Care. Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICA-06-2020-0039
Moon, D. J., Damman, J.L., & Romero, A. (2020). The effects of primary care-based parenting interventions on parenting and child behavioral outcomes: A systematic review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 21(4), 706-724. doi: 10.1177/1524838018774424
Moon, D. J., Williford, A. & Mendenhall, A. (2017). Educators' perceptions of youth mental health: Implications for training and the promotion of mental health services in schools. Children and Youth Services Review, 73, 384-391.