Our History

Read more about our two decades of history, beginning December 1999 when Center for Evidence-Based Practices began as the Ohio Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Coordinating Center of Excellence.

The Center for Evidence-Based Practices (CEBP) began as the Ohio Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Coordinating Center of Excellence (SAMI CCOE) with a grant from the Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH), which received funding from the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant Program of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The SAMI CCOE was founded by Lenore Kola, PhD, and David Biegel, PhD. Patrick Boyle, PhD, LISW, was hired as consulting director.

Ric Kruszynski, MSSA, LISW-S, LICDC-CS, joined the SAMI CCOE as director of consulting and training for substance abuse and mental illness. 

ODMH was awarded additional funding from SAMHSA's Community Mental Health Services Block Grant Program to implement Supported Employment (SE) (link to: SE) in four community-based organizations in Ohio. ODMH awarded funding to the SAMI CCOE to provide technical assistance to these organizations.

The SAMI CCOE reorganized and created an additional CCOE—the Ohio Supported Employment (SE) Coordinating Center of Excellence—to provide technical assistance for the implementation of the evidence-based SE model. It renamed the Center for Evidence-Based Practices, an umbrella organization to oversee the activities of both the SAMI and SE CCOEs. Lenore A. Kola, PhD, of the Mandel School, and Robert J. Ronis, MD, MPH, of the Department of Psychiatry, were the founding directors.

ODMH and the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services (now Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services or OhioMHAS) awarded funding to the CEBP to design, implement, and evaluate a tobacco-cessation model through its Ohio SAMI CCOE initiative. 

The center began providing technical assistance for Motivational Interviewing (MI)

The center began providing technical assistance for Benefits Planning (BP) (link to: BP), a core component of the evidence-based SE model. 

The Tobacco and Recovery model was renamed "Tobacco: Recovery Across the Continuum" (TRAC).

The CEBP expanded its technical-assistance strategies to help organizations plan and implement services for people diagnosed with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders, though its SAMI CCOE. The center began to utilize two organizational assessment and planning tools:

The center celebrated ten years of evidence-based practices (EBP) implementation in the State of Ohio at its conference, "Sustaining Evidence-Based Practices: The Next 10 Years," which was held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. Over 330 people from Ohio and 17 other states attended.

The OhioMHAS awarded the center a grant to establish a Coordinating Center of Excellence (CCOE) to disseminate Assertive Community Treatment (ACT). The center's new Ohio ACT CCOE has its roots in a technical-assistance center that was supported by The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati for many years.

Kola and Boyle retire from CEBP and the Mandel School. Kruszynski became director; Deborah Myers became managing director. The CEBP found its new administrative home at the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education, directed by Daniel J. Flannery, PhD, as its second consultation and training center, alongside the Center for Innovative Practices.