Janis Tondora, PsyD

Dr. Janis Tondora is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. Her professional interests focus on the design, implementation, and evaluation of services that promote self-determination, recovery, and community inclusion among individuals living with serious behavioral health disorders. She has worked closely with the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) for two decades to promote the transfer of academic research into the public-sector behavioral health system, with a specific focus on the dissemination of Person-Centered Care Planning (PCCP). In recognition of her work, she has participated as a steering committee member and subject matter expert on a number of national level initiatives aiming to promote person-centered care across the US disability service system. She has provided training and consultation to over two dozen states and numerous international collaborators seeking to develop person-centered planning models and programs.

Dr. Tondora’s work on Person Centered Care Planning has been shared through a variety of forums including peer-reviewed journal articles, two comprehensive textbooks, state and federal clinical practice manuscripts, and multiple training curricula and tools to support workforce development in person-centered care. For example, she has received funding from both a SAMHSA-supported Transformation State Incentive grant and two NIH-supported SBIR grants to develop and test a highly innovative web-based tool to support a more collaborative process of Person-centered Care Planning for service users and practitioners. Her training curricula and tools are being used extensively both domestically and internationally and they were recently featured by the National Center on Advancing Person- Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) in their National Environmental Scan of Foundational Resources and Approaches in Person-Centered Care.

Prior to her involvement in behavioral health, Dr. Tondora worked as a consultant providing support to school districts, families, and individuals with disabilities in an effort to promote the full inclusion of individuals in all aspects of classroom and community life—an objective that remains at the core of her current work in behavioral health.