TERESA L. SCHEID is a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with joint appointments in Public Policy and Health Services Research. She has published widely on the organization and delivery of mental health services and the work of mental health, including Reducing Race Differences in Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising: The Case for Regulation. Scheid has also examined the impact of a number of legislative mandates including outpatient commitment and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and is currently analyzing state level legislative reforms to mental health care.
MEGAN SMITH earned her PhD in Sociology in 2017 from Emory University and her M.A. in Sociology from UNC-Charlotte. Her dissertation, entitled Enhancing Choice, Capabilities, and Community for Chronically Mentally Ill Persons: The Social Context of a Faith-Based Day Program, is an ethnographic case study employing a grounded theory approach. In addition to her research, she was awarded the Andrew Mellon Teaching Fellowship during her tenure at Emory and taught mental health and research methods courses at Clark Atlanta University. Currently, she is a full time adjunct lecturer at UNC-Charlotte in the Sociology Department where she teaches courses in mental health, medical sociology, and criminology.