Katie A. McLaughlin

Dr. Katie McLaughlin, a clinical psychologist with expertise in child and adolescent mental health, is the Executive Director of the Ballmer Institute for Children's Behavioral Health at the University of Oregon. She has a joint Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology from Yale University. Before joining the Ballmer Institute, McLaughlin was a tenured professor of psychology at the University of Washington and Harvard University. She has dedicated her career to developing better strategies for the early identification and prevention of mental health problems in children and adolescents and training the next generation of behavioral health professionals. 

As the Executive Director of the Ballmer Institute, McLaughlin leads the development and evaluation of the nation’s first undergraduate training program in children’s behavioral health. This transformative initiative provides an unprecedented opportunity to stimulate innovation in youth behavioral health at a moment when new approaches to intervention and service delivery are sorely needed. McLaughlin’s research investigates the role of environmental experiences in shaping children’s development and mental health. Her research has been at the forefront of a rapidly evolving field demonstrating that childhood adversity is a common societal problem that has a powerful influence on youth mental health. Dr. McLaughlin’s research program examines how experiences of stress, trauma, and social disadvantage in childhood alter development in ways that increase risk for mental health problems and translates knowledge of these mechanisms into early interventions to prevent the onset of behavioral health concerns in children who have experienced adversity. 

Her overarching goal is to contribute to greater understanding of the role of environmental experience in shaping children’s development, so as to inform the creation of interventions, practices, and policies to promote adaptive development in society’s most vulnerable members.