For more than 25 years, Kathy Ell has conducted extensive research on cancer screening, major depression, general psychological distress, quality of life and morbidity, and mortality associated with life-threatening and chronic illness. She has led ground-breaking clinical studies on cancer screening, timeliness in getting to the hospital for acute cardiac symptoms and depression care among low-income racial and ethnic minorities. And, she was appointed the first executive director of the National Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research.

Ell has been recognized for her career accomplishments with the 2009 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research.

Associate Professor Maria Aranda said Ell has been very supportive of her career as a social work scholar in the mental health services research arena.

"Dr. Ell epitomizes strong leadership in her ability to translate rigorous methodologies in clinical trials of depression care in 'real world' settings such as public sector healthcare, home health and community health clinics," Aranda wrote in her nominating letter.

Professor Lawrence Palinkas agreed, saying he has known few social workers who have done more than Ell has to introduce social work principles and practice to researchers from other disciplines.

"Although there are numerous social workers who have established reputations for conducting thoughtful and meticulous investigations of issues that are of enormous importance to our profession and our society, Kathy Ell clearly stands at the head of the line," he wrote.

Ell is one of a handful of researchers in the country who bridges medicine and social work. All of her research has been conducted in healthcare systems and much of it is co-authored by physicians.

Ell said she developed an interest in the two disciplines early in her career. After earning her bachelor's in social work from Valparaiso University in Indiana, she took a job as a social work assistant at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. She later earned her master of social work from UCLA and began working at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. It was there where she noticed that a lot of the heart attack patients who died were depressed.

"We did the studies … and now it is a well-known documented fact that depression is very prevalent among heart attack patients," Ell said.

Ell's research is at the forefront of addressing an extensive gap in the delivery of health and mental health care to low-income minorities. She has conducted numerous trials of interventions to reduce disparities in cancer abnormal screening follow-up, which led her to study ways depression might affect medical conditions like cancer and diabetes and among home health care patients with multiple co-morbid illnesses. Ell said she receives calls from healthcare facilities across the country wanting to implement her patient navigation program in cancer screening follow-up.

One of her more recent studies used a team approach for major depressive disorder for low-income minority patients with cancer, which she said was the first large-scale trial of its kind.

The trial, conducted at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, used social workers to provide psychotherapy and "patient navigators," who acted as their personal advocates. The social workers collaborated with oncologists and psychiatrists to provide guideline depression treatment and long-term maintenance and relapse prevention support. The patient navigators set up appointments and helped patients manage their practical needs such as facilitating access to community resources, clinic transportation and child care. The trial was very successful. In the intervention group, patients experienced significant improvement in their depression symptoms and quality of life.

In the last decade, Ell has received about $14 million in research funding from the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Mental Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She plans to continue doing research but is currently writing a book called Evidence-Based Depression Care Management.

Ell said she feels like she has already accomplished much of what she wanted but now she wants to see her work moved to the next step.

"I want to see this evidence practiced in real-world, every day community-based medical care," she said. "We know it works, I want to see actual implementation."