Consultant Spotlights

Cara Renzelli, PhD, MBA has dedicated her career to creating linkages between clinical practice and the application of data to advance organizations and enhance the lives of those they serve. After spending nearly a decade in various roles at an NIAAA-funded research center, she joined one of the region’s largest substance use treatment providers at that time, where she developed a department of research and program evaluation. 

Over the next 15 years, Dr. Renzelli received funding from local, state and federal grants to support evidence-based practice implementation and other change management initiatives involving overdose prevention, family programming, patient satisfaction, and staff training and development. As part of the organization’s executive leadership team, she collaborated on quality improvement and systemwide growth and sustainability efforts. 

Most recently, Dr. Renzelli’s work within a managed care organization focused on physical and behavioral health integration to improve clinical outcomes, create efficiencies through innovative care models, and reduce health disparities. She has served as a federal grant reviewer and lead evaluator on SAMHSA-funded studies.

She earned her MSW and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work and later returned to complete her MBA with concentrations in operations, strategy, and marketing as a way to fuse both her passion and expertise to help resolve some of the most complex and challenging issues facing vulnerable priority populations.