My clinical and research interests center around behavioral and psychological symptoms that present in neurodegenerative diseases, especially dementias. Though dementia is well-known to affect one’s memory and cognition, over 90% of people with dementia develop new neuropsychiatric symptoms – including apathy, dysphoria. anxiety, aggression, agitation, disinhibition, hallucinations, and delusions. Despite the ubiquity of these symptoms, very little is known about how they develop in dementia. My research interests are in understanding more about the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia beyond the well-studied changes associated with cognitive deficits.
Along with my research mentor Martin Darvas PhD (Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology), we employ numerous approaches to better understand these neuropsychiatric symptoms, including techniques involving transcriptomic analyses of human and mouse post-mortem tissue, development and implementation of biomarkers derived from human and animal model fluids (plasma, serum, cerebrospinal fluid), virally-mediated gene manipulations, animal modeling of cognitive and neuropsychiatric phenotypes, and basic cellular and molecular biology techniques.
I am a practicing psychiatrist and health services researcher whose research has focused on system-level strategies to deliver high-quality care in settings with few clinical resources or available specialists. I am board certified in general adult psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry and my clinical work has included provision of psychiatric outpatient, inpatient, and emergency services care. I am interested in leveraging existing community infrastructure and adapting evidence based clinical practices to suit community contexts to reduce treatment gaps.
My interests focus on understanding etiology of substance use among adolescents and young adults, high risk events and the development of brief intervention and prevention efforts to reduce substance related harm. I have worked for over 20 years conducting research in governmental, private and academic settings to assess needs, assist in policy decisions and design intervention and prevention efforts. I am keenly interested in exploring opportunities to implement evidence-based approaches to enhance policies and practice.
I am a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and in the UW Psychology Department, where I am Director of the Center for the Science of Social Connection. I also am a member of the leadership team of the UW Medicine’s Office of Healthcare Equity, where I am Director of EDI Training and Education. My research and training efforts focus on understanding and intervening on bias and microaggressions, improving EDI training and consultation efforts, and developing close relationships especially across the differences that typically divide us.
I use the pronouns he, him, his.
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.
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.
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.
I am a trained Behavioral Scientist with a PhD in Health & Human Performance. The main goal of my work is to reduce substance-related harms and improve quality of life for people experiencing problems related to their substance use. I work closely with community members who use drugs to inform my line of research and address key needs identified. My primary appointment is at the Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) Center within the UW School of Medicine and hold an Affiliate Faculty appointment within the School of Public Health. My aim is to adapt, refine, and disseminate harm reduction programs through digital health interventions to empower individuals and ameliorate substance-related harms.
I am an Acting Assistant Professor and licensed clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. I received my Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and completed by postdoctoral training at the University of Washington. I am also a consultant for multiple teaching and implementation projects aimed helping community mental health providers deliver effective evidence-based trauma-informed care.
My career goal is to help survivors of complex trauma learn to thrive. My research and clinical work explores how mobile technology, principles of evidence-based practice, and our sociocultural context can be used to help survivors of trauma and their communities recover faster. My work specifically emphasizes recovery from complex racial trauma and other forms of identity-based trauma.
