All about CHAAMP

Foundation of Hope’s Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program.

Invest today. Impact tomorrow.

A brighter future for youth mental health.

Greyson’s family knows firsthand that losing a child or a sibling to mental illness is unthinkable. They also know that too many other families will face this tragedy if we don’t act now. We care because we can’t afford not to.

Every dollar spent now for research into early intervention and better treatments is an investment in the lives of our kids, teens, and young adults. Help us close the gap for our $5 million Campaign for CHAAMP. The fight to conquer mental illness is ongoing, but together we can — and will — shape the future of mental health care for generations to come. 

Our incredible CHAAMP progress.

From vision to action.

With your generosity, CHAAMP’s rapid growth has already surpassed our expectations. In the last two years, CHAAMP has become a key research component of UNC’s comprehensive approach to child and adolescent psychiatry. CHAAMP research is intertwined with clinical care efforts, the UNC Youth Behavioral Health hospital, and other strategic initiatives to address the nation’s youth mental health crisis.


Under the leadership of Director Danielle Roubinov, PhD, there is now $26 million in research underway, 12 research projects in progress, 6 research team members (plus 5 trainees), and multiple research collaborations happening across the University. Read more about these amazing accomplishments that the CHAAMP team has achieved in such a short time.

What makes CHAAMP unique?

A new approach to research.

Through a combination of basic research, clinical research, and community-based research, CHAAMP aims to:

Live at the forefront of developing novel treatments across the full spectrum of mood and anxiety disorders.

Identify early signals of risk by focusing not only on intervention but prevention as well.

Bridge gaps in services through innovative partnerships with pediatric primary care offices, schools, churches, or community centers until a family can obtain longer-term treatment.

Support the entire family because pediatric mental health impacts the whole family. CHAAMP research will develop two-generation treatment programs that support both caregivers and children.

I would have done anything to get him the help he needed. I would not have been ashamed. He would not have disappointed me.

Nicole Spector, mother of mother of Greyson who died in 2020

The experts behind CHAAMP.

Meet our stellar research team.

Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody

MD, MPH, Chair of the UNC Department of Psychiatry, Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor, Director, UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders

“We are grateful to Foundation of Hope donors who understand how their support moves the entire field of child and adolescent mental health research forward. Few foundations in the country do what they do to seed research and now, build this nationally leading CHAAMP program.”

Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody’s Biography
Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH is the Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also directs the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders and leads the UNC SOM and UNC Health Well-Being initiative. Dr. Meltzer-Brody is an internationally recognized physician- scientist in perinatal depression. Her research investigates the epidemiologic and biological predictors of perinatal depression including genetic, neurosteroid and other neuroendocrine biomarkers. She has also served as the academic PI for novel clinical trials developing an effective (now FDA approved) new pharmacologic treatment for postpartum depression (brexanolone). Dr. Meltzer-Brody recently received the 2020 O Max Gardner award, a UNC System Award (17 universities) for the highest faculty honor. She is also the recipient of the 2019 American Psychiatric Association Alexandra Symonds Award in Women’s Mental Health and was named one of the “Top 10 Women in Medicine” by the Triangle Business Journal.

Dr. Danielle Roubinov

PhD, Associate Professor, UNC Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Psychologist, Director of CHAAMP

“It’s exciting to see the extent that research can change people’s lives. I am deeply committed to transforming the mental health care we provide for children and families to reshape trajectories of risk to pathways of resilience.”

Dr. Danielle Roubinov’s Biography
Dr. Roubinov is transforming mental illness research for kids and teens through her visionary approach at CHAAMP. Dr. Roubinov previously was with UCSF, where she founded the Childhood Adversity and Resilience Lab. She led basic and translational studies to understand the processes through which early adversity affects children’s mental health and develop interventions that help at-risk children and families develop resilience.

She’s passionate, dedicated, and brilliant, earning multiple early-career research awards from the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychosomatic Society, and was recently named an Azrieli Global Scholar in Child and Brain Development by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. She believes that all children deserve a lifetime of health, positive development, and achievement.

Dr. Adam Miller

Ph.D., Associate Director of the Child and Adolescent Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program (CHAAMP), Associate Professor, Clinical Psychologist

In 2024, Dr. Adam Miller joined CHAAMP as the Associate Director. He’s an adolescent expert with a background in research on youth suicide prevention.

Dr. Adam Miller's Biography
Adam Bryant Miller, PhD, is the Associate Director of the Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program (CHAAMP). Dr. Miller joined CHAAMP in 2024. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He completed his predoctoral internship at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s Hospital. Dr. Miller completed a National Research Service Award funded postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) 0in the Department of Psychology. He completed his undergraduate studies at UNC.

Dr. Miller’s program of research focuses on identifying psychological and neurobiological mechanisms linking early childhood adversity exposure with risk for suicide across the child and adolescent developmental trajectory. To investigate this overarching question, Dr. Miller leverages mobile technology, functional MRI methodologies, and intensive and traditional longitudinal designs. His work is based in developmental psychopathology principals by acknowledging that pathways to suicide risk dynamically change over the course of childhood and adolescent development. His work has been continuously funded by the National Institute Health. Ultimately, the goal of Dr. Miller’s work is to identify pathways to suicide risk and identify ways to intervene with novel technological approaches.

Prior to UNC and CHAAMP, Dr. Miller was a Research Clinical Psychologist at RTI International and completed a K01 Career Development Award at UNC.

Dr. Ben Buck

Ph.D., Director of CHAAMP’s Digital Mental Health Innovations, Associate Professor, Clinician Scientist

In January 2025, Dr. Ben Buck will join the CHAAMP team as the Director of Digital Mental Health Innovations. He’s a clinician-scientist with expertise in digital mental health and the development, implementation, and scaling of novel digital technologies to treat mental health problems.
Dr. Ben Buck's Biography
My research is focused on (1) developing innovative mHealth assessments and interventions for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and cross-diagnostic persecutory ideation, as well as (2) “engagement mHealth,” or the development of mobile health interventions that increase the likelihood that underserved populations present to and receive evidence-based treatment, with a particular focus on young adults at risk for psychosis and their families. My research is supported by a NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and multiple grants from NIMH including a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award.

Prior to my faculty position at UW, I was an Advanced Fellow in VA Health Services Research and Development and the Department of Health Services at UW. I completed my clinical psychology internship at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, where I was awarded the APA Division 18 Outstanding VA Trainee Award. Prior to internship, I completed my undergraduate and doctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Throughout my training, I have been dedicated to services for individual with serious mental illness, with experience in an inpatient state hospital, VA psychosocial rehabilitation, intensive outpatient and dual-diagnosis clinics, and in coordinated specialty care for young people with early psychosis.

In addition to my program of research and clinical work, I am committed to clinical supervision and training. I currently lead the development of one of the first clinical training sequences designed for frontline clinicians integrating mHealth into community mental health. I was the first-ever graduate student to win UNC’s David Galinsky Award, an honor recognizing excellence in clinical supervision that had previously only ever been won by faculty. I am currently active in providing supervision in CBT to third-year psychiatry residents at UW.

Middle Childhood Clinician-Scientist Recruitment begins Fall 2024

The Campaign for CHAAMP will also support the hiring of a Middle Childhood Clinician-Scientist, thus ensuring that CHAAMP’s research spectrum covers the entire developmental lifespan.