Victoria Risbrough, PhD - ADAA Scientific Council Chair

Victoria Risbrough, PhD
University of California San Diego

Dr. Risbrough is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego and Associate Director of Neuroscience for the Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.  She completed her PhD in Neuroscience in 2004 from the University of California San Diego.  She leads a dual preclinical/clinical research program focusing on identifying mechanisms of risk and resilience to post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as development of new pharmacological treatments for these disorders. She uses homologous physiological and circulating measures of threat response across rodents and humans to develop translational probes of anxiety responding and treatment efficacy. Her preclinical laboratory at the Consortium for Translational Research in Neuropharmacology at UCSD uses behavioral, pharmacological, genetic and molecular techniques to identify genetic and circuit mechanisms of enduring trauma responses. Her clinical work at the VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health includes examination of tissue-based biomarkers of PTSD risk and traumatic brain injury, examination of mechanisms underlying core disruptions of fear learning and inhibition in trauma-related disorders and development of novel pharmacological treatments targeting these mechanisms.

She joined the Scientific Council in 2013 and was an ACNP/ADAA Career Development Travel award recipient in 2005.  She is also a Fellow of the American College of Neuropharmacology and is Associate Editor of the journal Neurobiology of Stress. She has received funding from NARSAD, NIDA, NIAAA, NIMH, VA, DOD, TRDRP, and Navy BUMED.

Dr. Risbrough has been an ADAA member since 2005 and is currently the Chair of ADAA's Scientific Council and an ex-officio board member.

"I am honored to serve as Chair for the SC for ADAA.  ADAA is uniquely impactful in our field via its integration of basic science and therapeutic discovery with clinical training in evidence-based care and public outreach.  On a personal level ADAA provided a critical network for building my own translational research program and I look forward to serving our membership through supporting dissemination of our members’ amazing research and training efforts."