University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Promotes Caitlin Conner, PhD, to Research Associate Professor of Psychiatry

We are pleased to announce that Caitlin Conner, PhD, has been promoted to Research Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 

Dr. Conner earned her PhD in clinical psychology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, having completed a clinical internship at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Upon receiving her doctorate, she came to Pittsburgh for postdoctoral research training in the Regulation of Emotion in Autistic Adults, Children, and Teens (REAACT) lab, led by Carla Mazefsky, PhD (Nancy J. Minshew, MD Chair in Autism Research and Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, and Psychology). Dr. Conner joined the Pitt Psychiatry faculty in 2019.

Dr. Conner’s research in the REAACT lab focuses on improving our understanding of emotional dysregulation in autistic youth, and she is an expert in understanding risk for suicide in autism and developing ways to measure that risk. Dr. Conner is a co-author of Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE), an emotion regulation intervention for autistic teens and young adults. With the Department’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) P50 grant, Dr. Conner serves as multiple principal investigator on the ACE Project 1, creating the Autism Suicidality Inventory (ASI), the first dimensional self-report questionnaire of suicidality developed for autism spectrum disorder. She serves as a co-investigator on multiple additional grants funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

“Dr. Conner is integral to the work of the REAACT lab. She has made numerous critical contributions to research on emotion regulation in autism, and has played a key role in the development of several other important lines of research. We are fortunate to benefit from her substantial expertise in emotional dysregulation in autistic youth,” said David Lewis, MD (Chair, Department of Psychiatry).

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Conner!