Robert Illback, PsyD, ABPP
President, Chief Executive Officer, Senior Evaluation Researcher
email: Bob@reacheval.com
Since 1987, Dr. Illback has served as President,Chief Executive Officer, and Senior Evaluation Researcher at REACH of Louisville. From 1982-1998, he was also Professor of Psychology in theclinical psychology training program at Spalding University and from 2007-2016 served as Deputy CEO and Director of Evaluation Research at Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health in Dublin, Ireland.
Dr. Illback holds a PsyD from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University, is board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology, and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and the Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology (AAAPP).
Dr. Illback has published extensively in areas of child psychology and education. He co-edited three books, including Integrated Services for Children and Families: Opportunities for Psychological Practice
(APA Books, 1997). Emerging School-Based Approaches for Children with Emotional and Behavioral Problems: Research and Practice in Service Integration, (Haworth Press, 1996), and Organizational Psychology in the Schools: A Handbook for Professionals (Charles C. Thomas, 1984). In 1990, he was named the inaugural recipient of the Donald R. Peterson Prize by Rutgers University in recognition of career contributions in professional psychology. https://gsapp.rutgers.edu/peterson-prize
Dr. Illback has been principal investigator for several large-scale systems of care initiatives, including Kentucky’s Family Resource and Youth Services Centers, Kentucky IMPACT, Health Access: Nurturing
Development Services (HANDS), and Kentucky’s substance abuse prevention programs. He played a leadership role in creating, directing, and evaluating what has become the national youth mental health early intervention service in the Republic of Ireland.
Dr. Illback has been active in professional association work at the local and national level. He served for nine years as a member of the State Board of Examiners in Psychology (including two terms as Chairperson) and VP for Professional Practice of Division 16 (School Psychology) of the American Psychological Association.
Recent Publications:
Hetrick, S.E., Bailey, A.P., Smith, K.E., Malla, A., Mathias S., Singh, S.P., O'Reilly, A., Verma, S.K., Benoit, L., Feming, T.M., Moro, M.R., Rickwood, D.J., Duffy, J., Eriksen, T., Illback, R.J., Fisher, C.A., &
McGorry, P.D. (2017). Integrated (one-stop shop) youth health care: best available evidence and future directions. Medical Journal of Australia, 207 (10 Suppl), S5-S-18.
O’Reilly, L., Peiper, N., O’Keeffe, L., Illback, R., & Clayton, R. (2016). Performance of the CORE-10 and YP-CORE measures in a sample of youth engaging with a community mental health service. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 25, 324-332.
O’Reilly, L., O’Keeffe, L., Illback, R., Peiper, N. & Clayton, R. (2015). Youth engagement with an emerging
Irish mental health early intervention programme (Jigsaw): Participant characteristics and implications for service delivery. Journal of Mental Health, 24, 283-288.
O’Keeffe, L., O’Reilly, A., Buckley, R., & Illback, R. (2015). Description and outcome evaluation of Jigsaw: An emergent Irish mental health early intervention programme for young people. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, DOI: 10.1017/ipm.2014.86, Published online: 19 January 2015
Peiper, N., Illback, R. J., O'Reilly, A., & Clayton, R. (2015). Latent class analysis of need descriptors within an Irish youth mental health early intervention program: Toward a typology of need. Early Intervention in Psychiatry. doi:10.1111/eip.12213
Peiper, N., Clayton, R., Wilson, R., Illback, R., O’Brien, E., Kerber, R., ... & Hornung, C. (2015). Empirically derived subtypes of serious emotional disturbance in a large adolescent sample. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 1-12.
Peiper, N., Clayton, R., Wilson, R., & Illback, R. (2014). The performance of the K6 Scale in a large school sample. Psychological Assessment, 10.1037/pas000002
Illback, R. J. (2014). Organization development and change facilitation in schools: Theoretical and empirical foundations. In W.P. Erchul & S. M. Sheridan (Eds.). Handbook of research in school consultation: Empirical foundations for the field (2nd ed.). (pp.276-303). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates/Taylor & Francis Group.
Illback, R. J. (2012). Change focused organizational consultation in school settings. In B. Kelly & D. F. Perkins (Eds.). Handbook of Implementation Science for Psychology in Education. (pp. 165-183). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Illback, R. J., & Bates, T. (2011). Transforming youth mental health services and supports in Ireland. Early
Intervention in Psychiatry, 5, 22-27.
Illback, R. J., Bates, T., Hodges, C., Galligan, K., Smith, P., Sanders III, D., & Dooley, B. (2010). Jigsaw: Engaging communities in the development and implementation of youth mental health services and supports in the Republic of Ireland. Journal of Mental Health, 19(5), 422-435.