Carrie Bearden, Ph.D.

Dr. Bearden serves as CAPPS’ Program Director and Principal Investigator. She is a Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Department of Psychology, and a licensed clinical psychologist. She is also a faculty member in the Brain Research Institute and UCLA’s Integrative Center for Neurogenetics.  Dr. Bearden received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and completed postdoctoral fellowships in pediatric cognitive neuroscience at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and UCLA.  

Dr. Bearden’s research aims to understand genetic, cognitive, and neurobiological risk factors for developmental neuropsychiatric disorders. Her lab examines these questions through two complementary lines of research: 1) The investigation of early biomarkers associated with the development of serious mental illness in adolescence, and 2) The study of neurobehavioral manifestations of syndromes with an identified genetic origin.

In addition to her work at CAPPS and the Psychosis Risk Outcomes Network (ProNET), an international consortium of clinics conducting longitudinal research on predictors of psychosis, Dr. Bearden is conducting a longitudinal brain and behavioral study of individuals with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome, a genetic disorder which results in a disruption of early neuronal migration and confers high risk for psychosis.

Dr. Bearden loves working with the incredible team members at CAPPS, and when she’s not at work loves hiking with her dogs.