Joan Kaufman

Biography

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Joan Kaufman, Ph.D. received her bachelors degree from Tufts University where she developed an interdisciplinary individualized major in Holocaust Studies. She then received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Yale University, and completed a post-doctorate fellowship in biological methods in child psychiatry at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC). She served on the faculty at WPIC for five years before returning to Yale University where she was on faculty in the Department of Psychiatry before joining the staff at Kennedy Krieger Institute. RESEARCH SUMMARY: Dr. Kaufman’s research focuses on two areas of investigation: 1) Research on risk and resilience in maltreated children; and 2) Child psychiatric assessment and studies in support of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative which aims to develop the necessary database to derive a new psychiatric nomenclature informed by neuroscience, genetics, and psychology. These two lines of research are synergistic and interrelated, with the study of maltreated individuals having a number of advantages for the RDoC project, including: the study of a subset of patients that are frequently treatment resistant to standard clinical interventions; examination of a relatively homogenous sample with the onset of psychopathology proposed to be associated with stress-related mechanisms; and well-established relevant animal models to facilitate translational research. Our investigations utilize clinical assessment, neuroimaging (e.g., structural, fMRI fear conditioning paradigm, resting state connectivity), and genetics (e.g., polymorphisms, epigenetic markers) research methods, with the goal of understanding the effects of early adversity on later development and factors that modify outcomes. Our program of research with maltreated children is broad, with a focus that spans from neurobiology to social policy.

Research Interest

Psychiatry