CMHA Ottawa welcomes Dr. Maryann Roebuck to its executive team

May 10, 2023

Dr. Roebuck joins the directors’ team as co-Director of Integration, Research and Evaluation 

The Ottawa branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association is delighted to announce the arrival of Dr. Maryann Roebuck to its team of directors. Maryann joins Dr. Donna Pettey in a half-time position as co-Director of Integration, Research and Evaluation. 

As Directors of Integration, Research and Evaluation, Drs. Roebuck and Pettey provide overall research leadership to the agency, determining its research and evaluation needs and enhancing the reputation of the organization as a leader in research in the community mental health sector. Together, Donna and Maryann oversee the Decision Support and Accountability Team, which is responsible for providing the organization with information to support clinical decisions, from frontline staff-client interactions to program-level considerations, through data management, quality improvement, program evaluation and indicator-monitoring activities. 

“CMHA Ottawa is committed to providing the highest quality of services to the people we serve,” said Dr. Roebuck. “I’ve seen the organization’s commitment over the years to contributing to innovation and research—such as in the area of Housing First. I’m eager to continue to support staff in providing evidence-based programming and ongoing evaluation of existing programs.” 

What Maryann enjoys most about her work is collaborating with frontline staff, program managers, and peer advisors to make sure the research and evaluation efforts are as useful as possible to the organization. 

“I want to make sure the organization has the information it needs to tell the story of the valuable work we’re doing,” she continues, “who we’re serving, and how we can continue to improve our services.” 

Dr. Roebuck is a mixed methods researcher with expertise in program evaluation and community mental health intervention research. Most recently she completed a Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services (CRECS) at the University of Ottawa, where she worked with CMHA Ottawa to develop and implement decision support dashboards. She has a Master’s of Social Work and a Ph.D. in Community Psychology, both focused on community-based research and program evaluation in the areas of community mental health, homelessness, and disability. 

As a Ph.D. student, she worked with CMHA Ottawa on the multi-provincial Canadian evaluation of Strengths Model Case Management, as well as a study of CMHA Ottawa’s provision of virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a case study of CMHA Ottawa’s Condominium Program, which won the Paula Goering Collaborative Research and Knowledge Translation Award in Mental Health and Addictions. When she’s not at CMHA she teaches at the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College, conducts virtual Housing First fidelity assessments, and supports other agencies to meet their research and evaluation needs. In a past career she worked as a policy analyst with Employment and Social Development Canada.