Early Career Impact Awardee – Flux: The Society for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Dr. Dylan Gee’s research is focused on the neural mechanisms underlying the dynamic changes that occur in emotional learning and behavior during childhood and adolescence, and how they relate to the effects of stress on the developing brain and risk for psychiatric illness. Using behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging methods she works to understand the developing brain with the goal to more effectively treat anxiety and stress-related disorders that emerge during development and to guide evidence-based policy recommendations in the area of youth well-being.
Dr. Gee received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychological & Brain Sciences from Dartmouth College, her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA, and completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Gee is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Yale University, where she directs the Clinical Affective Neuroscience & Development Lab (CANDLab). The CANDLab bridges clinical, developmental, and neuroscience approaches to study how the brain develops during childhood and adolescence and how these changes affect emotional development and risk for mental health disorders.
Dr. Gee’s work has underscored how early experiences can have profound effects on the developing brain and behavior, and how exposure to adversity is a potent risk factor for mental health disorders – the majority of which emerge during childhood and adolescence. Her lab’s research has made novel empirical and theoretical contributions in three primary areas: (1) advancing the understanding of neurodevelopmental changes associated with emotional learning and regulation in youth, (2) providing new insights into how early experiences confer risk as well as resilience, and (3) translating knowledge about the biological state of the developing brain to optimize interventions for youth with stress-related psychopathology.
Dr. Gee’s research has important implications for informing policy and fostering systems-level change. In particular, her lab’s research on brain development and youth mental health is helping to guide how–and when–to optimally intervene to promote youth mental health and to inform policies that reduce systemic adversities and inequities. Throughout her early career, Dr. Gee has worked to disseminate the CANDLab’s scientific findings and knowledge from developmental science in ways that can inform discussions on evidence-based policy. She has also co-led efforts to promote science communication and equitable research-community partnerships. In New Haven, Dr. Gee gives community talks, partners with local schools to support youth mental health, and leads her lab in outreach activities through Yale’s Pathways to Science program.
