Justin Benzer, Ph.D.

Justin Benzer, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Dell Medical School.

Benzer is an industrial/organizational psychologist and health services researcher. He has a dual affiliation at the Department of Veterans Affairs Central Texas Health Care System in the VISN 17 Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans, where he serves as the Implementation Core chief. He is associate editor of implementation science communications and on the editorial board of Health Care Management Review. His research broadly focuses on improving coordination and quality of care in the primary care and mental health settings.

Within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Benzer is leading a Department of Defense study to determine the knowledge and skills needed by U.S. Army officers and noncommissioned officers to implement sexual assault prevention programs. This is a collaboration with Fort Gordon, Georgia. He is also a member of the Dell Medical School Texas Targeted Opioid Response Project, in which he is designing an implementation strategy to increase the reach and adoption of a new opioid overdose reporting system.

Benzer also serves as the evaluation lead for an integrated program for people experiencing homelessness in Austin that is a collaboration with Integral Care and CommUnity Care. He is the evaluator for a mobile mammography clinic that is a collaboration with Lone Star Circle of Care. He is also completing an evaluation of the Integral Care Certified Community Behavioral Health Center. Finally, he provides organizational psychology expertise for a Dell Medical School study of the mental health consequences of COVID-19 for health care workers.

Within the Department of Veterans Affairs, Benzer is publishing from a study that measures health care integration using the VA electronic health record, as well through surveys of patients and primary care providers. He is also leading two new studies related to integrated care. The first study uses data from the VA electronic health record to measures sequences of mental health care following a new depression diagnosis using a novel sequence analysis methodology. The second study is an evaluation of the nationwide restructuring of clinical leadership within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Benzer came to the Dell Medical School from Boston University and the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research, where he has worked as a health services researcher since 2008. He is originally from Massachusetts but was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, during his enlistment in the U.S. Army. He earned his doctorate in the Department of Psychology at Texas A&M University.