Zac Imel Honored as 2025 Distinguished Research Award Recipient
We’re excited to share that Zac Imel, Assistant Professor in the Counseling Psychology Program at the University of Utah’s
Department of Educational Psychology, has been named the recipient of the 2025 University
of Utah Distinguished Research Award. This recognition highlights Professor Imel’s significant contributions to the field
of mental health research, particularly his innovative work in improving psychotherapy
and mental health treatment. Professor Imel is the second faculty member from the
Department of Educational Psychology to receive this prestigious award, following
William A. Smith, who received the honor in 2021.
Imel’s research has focused on enhancing the quality of mental health care, with a particular emphasis on psychotherapy. He’s passionate about using technology to help clinicians improve their practice and ensure that patients receive the best care possible. One of his most notable accomplishments is co-founding Lyssn, an AI-driven healthcare technology company. Today, Lyssn serves various agencies, including child welfare, crisis response systems, and behavioral health programs, helping clinicians develop their skills and improve patient satisfaction. Lyssn continues to evolve with their commitment to investment in ongoing research, creation of new tools and functionality, and new studies and findings.
In reflecting on the award, Professor Imel shares, “In Utah, and really many places in the US, we have a dramatic supply problem in mental healthcare. There just are not enough well-trained providers to meet the need."
Our Counseling and Counseling Psychology programs in Educational Psychology train lots and lots of mental health clinicians each year, but we can’t meet the demand. New technology is needed to ‘scale-up’ quality education and ongoing training for mental health providers. That’s always been the goal—how do we use these emerging technologies to support clinicians, make them better, and more supported.”
Looking ahead, Professor Imel is particularly excited about his ongoing collaborations with colleagues at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute and in the computer science department. He says, “We are in the middle of several projects focused on understanding and supporting the process and outcome of crisis care. I see a future where we can provide tools to both new and established crisis workers that help them be the best they possibly can be. Mental health providers are some of the unsung heroes in our society, and I am passionate about providing them with the best possible support.”
When asked about the most rewarding part of his research journey, Professor Imel explains, “I think for any scientist, the process of discovery is the most rewarding. I was trained as a clinician, but this research has allowed me to learn from the experiences of thousands of fantastic clinicians. In mental health, their work mostly goes unobserved, and we don’t really get to learn from it. However, multidisciplinary teams that combine clinicians with engineers allow us to systematically learn from how these experts navigate the complexities of day-to-day clinical work. It’s such a privilege. We spend a lot of time just trying to understand the amazing clinicians that work in our mental health clinics who do work to save the lives of so many every day—there is a lot of discovery that happens from simply observing.”
Congratulations to Professor Zac Imel on this well-deserved recognition. We look forward to seeing how his future research will continue to shape the field.