Condition: Child and adolescent psychiatry/psychology
Sarah Danzo
My research broadly aims to better understand the etiology of depression and risk behaviors such as suicide and substance use across development, and translate findings to inform prevention and intervention strategies for youth and families. My work focuses on partnering with communities and primary care clinics to improve access to and use of effective mental health services.
My current projects include studies focused on adapting and evaluating suicide prevention intervention and implementation strategies for use with adolescents and their families in primary care and outpatient medical settings, including developing and adapting brief, just-in-time, and digital interventions to expand access to services.
In addition to research, I am also a clinical psychologist in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program and the Crisis Care Clinic at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Connor Gallik
Dr. Connor Gallik, PhD, is the attending psychologist for the Adolescent Program on the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at University of Washington.
Prior to joining the staff and faculty at Seattle Children’s/UW, Dr. Gallik completed his graduate education at the University of Connecticut with an emphasis in child and adolescent clinical psychology. He completed his clinical internship at Pacific University’s Psychology and Comprehensive Health Clinic and went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at Seattle Children’s Hospital with an emphasis in DBT and inpatient care.
His research focuses on understanding factors related to the mental health and wellbeing of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) TGD youth and evidence-based practice on inpatient units. Clinically, he is interested in working with children, adolescents, and their families, with a focus on TGD youth. Dr. Gallik also provides training in TGD affirming care for mental health and medical professionals and speaks to community audiences about supporting transgender youth.
Eric Boelter
My clinical work focuses on the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who engage in severe challenging behavior. My interest in this underserved population is in the development of a continuum of care, providing evidence-based care, and in the dissemination of best practices through research and training. At the University of Washington, I work on the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Unit at Seattle Children’s and lead the sub-unit that specializes in patients with IDD.
Michelle H. Dick
I am a bilingual, bicultural psychiatrist with interests in cultural psychiatry, psychotherapy, trauma-informed care, and improving quality of care and safety for our patients/families that receive care in a language other than English and other underserved communities.
I joined the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry faculty at the University of Washington in Fall of 2022 after completing my Child and Adolescent Psychiatry training here at the University of Washington at Seattle Children’s Hospital and General Psychiatry SUNY Upstate Medical University, with emphasis in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Trauma Focused- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Kristine McKenna
My clinical and research interests are strongly anchored in efforts to improve the quality of life and coping of children and adolescents with chronic illness. As a pediatric psychologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, I provide assessment and intervention services to patients within the Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Program. My role involves assisting with issues such as adherence to medical regimens, teaching long-term stress reduction strategies to families, and empowering adolescents as they move toward adulthood and assume greater responsibility for their care. I am currently involved in QI projects including screening for psychological coping and risk factors as well as to help prepare our patients for transition to adult transplant programs.
Michelle Kuhn
Sherilynn Chan
I am a pediatric psychologist who specializes in working with patients with cancer, tumors of the central nervous system, hematological disorders, and immunological disorders, including patients undergoing a stem cell transplant. I provide psychosocial care to children, adolescents, and young adults seen in the Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
In addition to clinical care, I engage in program development, quality improvement projects, and research. My research focuses on understanding psychosocial needs and improving psychosocial assessment and interventions for children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer and their families across the treatment trajectory. I have specific interests in survivorship, adolescent and young adults with cancer, and adolescent peer relationships.
Alissa Hemke
I am a child and adolescent psychiatrist with interests in medical education, infant and early childhood mental health, and psychotherapy. I direct psychotherapy training for child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) fellows, co-lead the CAP fellows’ didactic curriculum, and coordinate the CAP training experiences of general psychiatry residents.
My clinical work includes treatment in the outpatient setting for young children through adolescents, working closely with their families. I am passionate about psychiatrists supporting families comprehensively. I seek to use not only medications (if appropriate) but also behavioral/psychotherapeutic approaches.
I have done research on expanding behavioral treatments for young children by involving peer supports—caregivers who have previously participated in the programs for their own children—as members of the care team.
Emily Neuhaus
Dr. Neuhaus has a broad research focus on social-emotional processes in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or inherited or de novo genetic events. Dr. Neuhaus’s research is informed by a number of methodological approaches, including clinical/behavioral assessment and physiological measures such as EEG and autonomic biomarkers. Dr. Neuhaus is particularly interested in how social and emotional processes relate to brain function and development, and in how they interact with one another to influence diagnostic outcomes (e.g., phenotypes within autism) and psychiatric trajectories over the course of development. Clinically, Dr. Neuhaus specializes in diagnostic assessment of ASD.
