Who We Are

Personal Statement

I am a licensed psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, completed clinical psychology internship at the University of Washington, and subsequently was awarded an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship focused on brief interventions for reducing young adult alcohol use. I joined the University of Washington faculty in 2019. My research centers on developing and testing brief prevention and intervention programs for adolescent and young adult substance misuse (including alcohol and cannabis), and co-occurring mental health concerns such as depression, PTSD, loneliness, using substances to cope with negative affect. These programs are delivered across a variety of platforms (text message, web-based, web-conferencing, in-person face-to-face) to facilitate accessibility. To inform intervention development, my work also examines etiological and contextual factors related to substance misuse and mental health, including loneliness, depression, coping motives, and barriers to accessing mental health services. I have served as Principal Investigator on research funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, as well as other grants from the University of Washington. Clinically, I work with children and adolescents presenting with depression and suicidality at Seattle Children’s Hospital in the Behavioral Health Crisis Care Clinic and in the Mood and Anxiety Program.

• Recent Grants:
  • We are currently enrolling young adults ages 21-29 in Project MAX: https://sites.uw.edu/projectmax/
    • Development of a behavioral economic intervention with personalized resource allocation feedback to reduce young adult alcohol misuse  (PI: Cadigan, NIH/NIAAA1R34AA029478)
  • Development of an interactive, we-based drinking to cope intervention and tools to assess coping skill utilization (PI: Cadigan, NIH/NIAAA R34AA028074)

Department Affiliations