Faculty and Staff

Dr. Piacentini is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine and Director of the Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program at the UCLA Semel Institute. His research, teaching and clinical work focus on the development, evaluation, and implementation of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and other effective treatments, including medication, for children with OCD, other anxiety disorders, tic disorders and trichotillomania.

Dr. Tara Peris is a Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. She is currently the Vice Chair for Research and the Associate Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition, she is the Co-Director of the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program. Dr. Peris's research and clinical interests are in developmental psychopathology, with a particular focus on anxiety, OCD, and related disorders. Her research examines developmental trajectories of these conditions as well as strategies for optimizing treatment outcome. Dr.

Dr. McCracken is the Joseph Campbell Professor of Child Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UCLA NPI-Semel Institute in Los Angeles. His current areas of research include developing and testing innovative treatments for cognitive defects associated with child psychiatric illness, family-genetic studies of childhood disorders, and the testing of new pharmacologic treatments for a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders in children.

Dr. Chang is an Assistant Professor of Child Psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute. Her research interests include investigations into the neurocognitive correlates of treatment response in childhood tic, OCD and related conditions, as well as how cognitive training paradigms like attention bias modification may help to improve disorders such as OCD and anxiety.

Dr. Langley is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She is a clinician and researcher who specializes in cognitive behavioral treatment for children and adolescents with PTSD, anxiety, and related disorders. Dr. Langley’s work seeks to increase school-based access to evidence-based interventions for underserved populations of children.

Dr. Nurmi is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the David Geffen School of Medicine. She is the Medical Director of the UCLA Pediatric OCD Intensive Outpatient Program, faculty in the Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Clinic, and director of a molecular and computational genetics laboratory in the Semel Institute UCLA Semel Institute. Dr. Nurmi's research focuses on the genetic basis of obsessive-compulsive disorder and tic disorders, employing next generation molecular and computational approaches.

Dr. Ricketts is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program within the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Her research interests center on sleep and circadian disturbance and intervention (i.e., behavior therapy, light therapy, novel and alternative therapies) in youth and adults with persistent tic disorders, body focused repetitive behavior disorders, and OCD.

R. Lindsey Bergman Ph.D. is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in the David Geffen School of Medicine and Director of the Pediatric OCD Intensive Outpatient Program at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA and joined the department of Psychiatry soon after earning her degree in 1995. Dr. Bergman is a researcher and clinician who specializes in cognitive behavioral treatment for children and adolescents with OCD, selective mutism, and related disorders.

Dr. Rozenman is a Clinical Instructor at the UCLA Semel Institute, and Associate Director of the UCLA Pediatric OCD Intensive Outpatient Program. Her research is focused on identifying and directly targeting basic cognitive biases in pediatric anxiety with novel experimental therapies, such as cognitive bias modification. Additional clinical and research interests include maximizing effectiveness of behavioral interventions for youth with anxiety and OCD.

Katherine is the Program Coordinator for the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety and Tic Disorders program. She coordinates several studies in the program, including a study examining standard treatment and a mobile application for childhood OCD. Katherine graduated from UCLA in 2019 with a B.S. in Psychobiology and minor in Chicana/o Studies. She is interested in pursuing a career in clinical psychology or social work, with a specific interest in mental health disparities in underserved communities.