Jon Ahuna, Ph.D.

Sheila A. Pires Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Innovations Institute

Jonathan “Jon” Ahuna is the UConn School of Social Work’s Innovations Institute Sheila A. Pires Postdoctoral Research Fellow.

Dr. Ahuna’s research interests include clinical decision-making and the critical examination of innovations in mental health service systems. His clinical interests center on interventions for youth who have experienced complex trauma.

Dr. Ahuna is the co-author of studies published in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, Psychotherapy Research, Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, and Children and Youth Services Review.

Dr. Ahuna comes to UConn from the University of South Carolina, where he recently earned a Ph.D. and an MA in clinical-community psychology. His dissertation was titled “Opening the ‘Black Box’ on Decision Processes in Mental Health Supervision: Tactics, Strategies, and Influences.”

Dr. Ahuna completed his predoctoral internship at the National Center for School Mental Health through the University of Maryland. There, he developed a design-centered interview protocol to inform the implementation of a digital therapeutic app in a mobile substance use clinic.

Dr. Ahuna earned a BA in psychology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where he studied community mental health systems and cultural psychology.

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