B-HIP Key Personnel and Interprofessional Coordinators
Dr. Amy Doolittle, Ph.D., LCSW is the MSW Program Director and Associate Professor in the Social Work Program. Dr. Doolittle has worked in several capacities in the mental health field since 1996. She has worked as a clinical social worker in crisis stabilization with children and adolescents who were in crisis and/or suicidal/homicidal, she has also worked in a partial hospitalization program, clubhouse setting, and a community-based setting with adults with severe and persistent mental illness. Dr. Doolittle has spent the last eighteen (18) years as a faculty member at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga training future social workers. Since 2016 she has worked solely in the graduate program to train advanced level social work clinicians. As a social worker and as an educator, her goal is to serve and train future social work practitioners who are skilled and provide quality and well-rounded services to our communities. Dr. Doolittle holds a Ph.D. and an MSSW from the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville.
Dr. Kevin Doyle is an accomplished counseling educator and clinician dedicated to advancing personal wellness, clinical supervision, and motivational interviewing in higher education and community settings. He earned his Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision from Virginia Tech, with a dissertation exploring how perceived supervisor wellness and supervision quality predict supervisee well-being. He also holds an M.A. in Counselor Education and a B.S. in Human Development) from the same institution.
Since joining the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2018, Dr. Doyle has risen from Assistant to Associate Professor in the School of Professional Studies, now leading the Counselor Education program as Program Director and CACREP Liaison. He has taught extensively, including courses in counseling theory, ethics, supervision, crisis intervention, psychopharmacology, and practicum/internship supervision.
A licensed professional counselor in Virginia and a National Certified Counselor Dr. Doyle brings rich clinical expertise from roles in community mental health, college counseling, crisis intervention, and intensive in-home therapy.
His research, funded through over $2.8 million in grants, centers on innovative approaches to counseling education, student resilience, mental health in higher education, and motivational interviewing interventions. Notable projects include leading a $2.4M HRSA-funded Behavioral Health Workforce Education initiative and piloting AI-enhanced counselor training. His scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed publications on wellness modeling in supervision, stress resilience during COVID-19, and motivational interviewing.
Passionate about cultivating resilient future professionals, advancing wellness-oriented supervision, and leveraging evidence-based strategies in counseling practice, Dr. Doyle continues to shape innovative education and practice models at the intersection of research, teaching, and service.
Alexandra Frank, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and School Counseling Coordinator in the Counselor Education program. She is a nationally certified counselor with education experience spanning Kindergarten to higher education. She is thrilled to work with counselors and school counselors as they discover their passion for impacting the communities in which they are embedded.
Amanda Hardin, Psy.D., NCSP is an Assistant Professor and the School Psychology Program Director at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She currently serves as the Tennessee Association of School Psychologists President- Elect and the National Association of School Psychology’s Rural School Psychology Interest Group Coordinator, where she continues to advocate for mental health and school psychological services in rural communities. Dr. Hardin has presented nationally on school-based mental health in rural school districts, building strategic partnerships in rural communities, mentorship, and autism evaluation and transition services. Dr. Hardin continues to practice as a contract school psychologist and conducts Independent Education Evaluations in the Chattanooga area.
Elizabeth O’Brien, Ph.D., LPC-MHSP, is a UC Foundation Professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Director of the School of Professional Studies in the College of Health, Education, and Professional Studies. She serves as the Project Director for the B-HIP grant. She is the current chair of the American Counseling Association Foundation’s Board of Trustees, the philanthropic arm of the American Counseling Association, the national professional organization for counselors. Elizabeth has presented nationally and internationally on topics including wellness, marriage and couples counseling, spiritual and ethical decision-making, and rural mental healthcare delivery. She maintains a small private practice in the Chattanooga area, and her most recent book, The Power in the Middle, was published in July 2025.
Bethany Womack, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She received her MSSW from the University of Tennessee and her PhD from the University of Alabama in 2017, researching policy and practice evaluation strategies in public child welfare systems. Her research interests include evaluation of human services and social factors influencing social work education. She has served as a field instructor and field supervisor to MSW students and participated in federal and state child welfare reviews. Prior to pursuing her research interests, she spent 10 years working with a state public child welfare agency assessing and implementing strategies in support of a major practice reform effort.
