The Role of Caregivers in Interventions for Youth Depression and Suicidality

Alex Bettis, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She directs the Regulating Emotions and Stress in Teens (REST) Lab at VUMC, leading several studies to understand predictors of teen suicide and testing parent-focused interventions to support teens during periods of risk. 

Dr. Kirsty A. Clark (she/her/hers) is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist. She serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health & Society and Public Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University and as a core faculty member in the Vanderbilt LGBT Policy Lab. Dr. Clark’s program of research focuses on examining mental health disparities, especially suicide, impacting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) populations and developing evidence-based interventions to disrupt the course of such disparities. Dr. Clark’s training background spans interdisciplinary fields of psychology, public health, and epidemiology, and her research profile reflects this interdisciplinary nature through robust qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods health disparities research projects. Dr. Clark is the PI of a National Institute of Mental Health Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) which aims to use novel real-time assessment methods to capture associations between stigma-related stressors and suicidal ideation among LGBTQ+ young people. Dr. Clark completed a PhD in Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, a Master of Public Health at Yale University, and a BA in Psychology at the University of Virginia. Additionally, she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Yale LGBTQ Mental Health Initiative.

Autumn Kujawa, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research integrates multiple methods to examine vulnerabilities for depression and develop targeted interventions to reduce the burden of mood disorders on youth and families. Dr. Kujawa earned her Ph.D. from Stony Brook University in 2015 and completed a internship and postdoctoral fellowship in the neuroscience of mental health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has published 79 peer-reviewed articles (h-index=32), been recognized as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science, and received research funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation, American Psychological Foundation, and Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.

Dr. Jessica M. Schwartzman is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and a core faculty member of the Psychiatry Autism Research Team (PART) at VUMC. Dr. Schwartzman’s program of research focuses on characterizing and treating internalizing disorders in autistic individuals, a vulnerable cohort at elevated risk for depression and suicidality. Dr. Schwartzman completed a BS in Psychobiology at U.C.L.A., graduate research at Stanford University and PhD in Clinical Psychology at Palo Alto University, and clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at VUMC in the autism and lifespan development track. Dr. Schwartzman’s clinical research training at UCLA, Stanford University, and VUMC cultivated an expertise in multimethod, multi-informant assessments, cognitive-behavioral interventions, and randomized controlled trials for depression and suicidality in autistic and other neurodiverse individuals. Her work has been funded by two extramural grants and four internal grants at Stanford and VUMC. Currently, Dr. Schwartzman is the PI of an internal grant (VICTR-54998) that aims to develop and empirically test the efficacy of the first autism-adapted cognitive-behavioral group intervention for depression in autistic adolescents.