Amy Watson is a professor at Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. For the past two decades, her research has focused on police encounters with people with mental illnesses and the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model.

Amy has also conducted research and provided consultation to programs serving people with mental illnesses with criminal legal system involvement. These include CIT programs, mental health courts and prison re-entry programs. She served on the CIT International Board of Directors from 2016-2021, as President of the Board 2020-2021.

Earlier in her career, Amy worked as a probation officer on a team serving clients with serious mental illnesses and as a Forensic Social Worker/Mitigation Specialist working on death penalty cases. She has a BA in Criminal Justice from Aurora University and an AM and PhD from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.