Associate Professor
Dr J. Randy Koch is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Dr Koch earned his doctorate in community psychology from Michigan State University in 1985. Prior to joining VCU in 2003, he was the Director of Research and Evaluation for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, a position he held since 1989. In this position, he was responsible for evaluating publicly-funded behavioural healthcare services in Virginia as well as conducting a wide range of policy studies. Since joining VCU, his research interests have focused primarily on the prevention of youth tobacco use and methods for improving the quality of substance abuse services especially program performance and outcome measurement. Among his current responsibilities he is a Co-PI for the Virginia Youth Tobacco Projects, a statewide, multi-university research program on the causes and prevention of youth tobacco use; he is a co-investigator for a study assessing the impact of alternative tobacco control policies on youth tobacco use; and he is the director of the VCU Humphrey Fellowship Program on Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Policy that brings mid-career professionals from low and middle-income countries to VCU for advanced leadership and technical training. Dr Koch’s international work includes serving as a peer reviewer for the ISSUP Universal Treatment Curriculum, serving on the project team developing an international set of standards and quality assurance protocols for drug treatment services, and co-developing a performance and outcome measurement system for South Africa’s addiction treatment services.