The University of Oregon (OU) is training a new kind of behavioral health professional to help address the growing national need for children’s mental health services.
The UO’s Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health in Portland, Oregon, is teaching undergraduates specialized skills to support children’s well-being. The program’s first “child behavioral health” majors are set to graduate in June 2026.
“We are thrilled to have our first group of students graduating from the program this summer,” said Katie McLaughlin, executive director of the Ballmer Institute and Knight Chair and professor in the UO’s department of psychology. “They will enter the workforce with essential skills to support children and help ease the shortage of trained behavioral health professionals.”
Founded in March 2022, the Ballmer Institute is the first training program of its kind in the United States and is poised to become a national model. It was launched with a transformational lead gift from Connie and Steve Ballmer of Ballmer Group Philanthropy.
Ballmer Institute leaders have been working to expand their approach beyond Oregon, and they’re gaining traction.
Nevada was the first state to adopt the Ballmer Institute training model at a state university and to create a credential to allow graduates to practice in Nevada. Efforts are underway to pass similar legislation in Oregon.
The Ballmer Institute is the culmination of years of creative, collaborative work by many across the UO to assemble faculty, develop curriculum, acquire and upgrade facilities, and build relationships with community partners, including the Portland-area schools and community-based organizations where the undergraduates gain practice and experience.
Typically, becoming a licensed therapist or counselor requires years of graduate study. The Ballmer Institute’s model will enable graduates with a specialized bachelor’s degree to provide certain types of behavioral health services in schools and other community settings, allowing for rapid expansion of this critical yet understaffed workforce.
The need for children’s support services has increased dramatically at schools in Oregon and throughout the country, McLaughlin said.
“What we’re hearing across the board is that there are simply not enough trained psychologists, counselors and social workers in schools to meet the demand for services,” she said. “Many kids who are identified as needing support don’t often get access to the services that might be most helpful to them because there aren’t enough trained professionals in the school to do it. The result is that teachers are being asked to do increasingly more to address the dramatic rise in behavioral health needs in the classroom.”
Deep thought and planning went into defining the new profession, its scope of practice and how it can add value to the existing behavioral health services system, supporting the needs of youth in a culturally responsive way.
That high level of care is reflected in the Ballmer Institute curriculum, course sequence and on-site training. The program was intentionally designed to first teach undergraduates specific skills and then provide opportunities to practice those skills before they apply them in a school or other community setting, said Sarah Kate Bearman, a professor and director of clinical training at the Ballmer Institute.
Student learning is focused on four areas: foundational skills and professional practice; early identification; promotion, prevention and intervention; and culturally responsive and inclusive applied practice.
“An important piece that sets it apart is the emphasis on early identification of kids needing support and behavioral health promotion and prevention,” said Maureen Zalewski, the Ballmer Institute’s director of child behavioral health training.
Promotion focuses on building positive well-being, competencies, and supportive environments to help all young people thrive. One example would be a whole class presentation on how to form positive friendships.
Prevention refers to services that reduce risk factors to prevent the development of mental health problems. Screening is an example of a prevention strategy that identifies kids who are showing early signs of behavioral health concerns.
Undergraduates at the Ballmer Institute begin their applied practice in the winter term of their third year of study. During their final year of the program, they apply to internships cultivated through partnerships with various schools, health care and mental health agencies, and community organizations in the Portland area. To earn their child behavioral health degree, they must complete 700 hours of supervised practice in schools, pediatric clinics and other community organizations.
The first group of undergraduates began interning at five Portland-area schools in January 2025. Before the interns arrived, Cody Gion, an assistant clinical professor at the Ballmer Institute, and other Ballmer Institute faculty spent time in the schools forging relationships with teachers and administrators, getting to know students, listening to what people in the school community said they needed, and collaborating with school behavioral health teams to set up the new internship experience.
Their efforts are paying off.
The interns learned and practiced research-backed techniques in their Ballmer Institute classes, and then, under supervision, taught them to students. Some examples are relaxation techniques —visualizing a safe or peaceful place when feeling anxious or agitated — and strategies for improving friendships and navigating social situations.
“It’s all just a big new experience for me,” said Jonathan Huang, who interned last school year at George Middle School in north Portland. “It’s been really fun to learn new skills while practicing them at the same time.”
The undergraduates value their experience in the schools, and school administrators have welcomed them.
Even with a counselor and social worker on staff, “additional support is great,” said Ambar Olivas, the assistant principal at George Middle School.
For example, she recalled seeing a UO intern working one-on-one with a student, and later that day, the student was struggling.
“I was able to ask the intern, ‘Could you check in with the student again?’” Olivas said. “Sometimes it helps when the face a student sees isn’t a school person.”
Opportunities to get out of the classroom and serve local communities can be scarce for undergraduates. But fieldwork is central to the Ballmer Institute model.
Stacee Wion, who interned at George Middle School last school year, said she feels lucky to get so much field time as an undergraduate.
“I know how rare that is,” she said. “I feel like I have this whole new door opening for me, and I’m excited because I know there’s so much to do behind that door.”
The Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health
Founded: March 1, 2022, with a transformational lead gift from Connie and Steve Ballmer of Ballmer Group Philanthropy.
Faculty: Seven tenure-track faculty members affiliated with the UO College of Education and the psychology department in the College of Arts and Sciences, who teach and conduct research; five clinical faculty members who teach and supervise students’ practice in the schools and community; plus many other affiliated UO College of Education and psychology faculty members.
Undergraduate program: A first-of-its-kind bachelor’s degree program in child behavioral health. A 2+2 program, with the first two years of pre-major courses at the UO Eugene campus or another institution, and the final two years of specialized coursework on the UO Portland campus, plus 700 hours of supervised practice in the Portland community.
