History

The UCLA Tarjan Center (TC) is located within the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior with most faculty having appointments within the David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Semel is a unique interdisciplinary research and education institute as it hosts research into modern behavioral neuroscience, social policy, and culture.

The co-location of the UCLA Tarjan Center at the Semel Institute encourages cross pollination with state-of-the-art clinical and specialty clinics, research programs (CART, NIH Autism Center for Excellence (ACE), CARES, and IDDRC), and top-ranked training programs in psychiatry and psychology across the lifespan. The Director, Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson, is also the Program Director for ACE Dissemination, Outreach and Education Core, and the Director of the UCLA Autism and Neurodiverse Disability Pre-Doctoral Psychology Internship establishing direct linkages with those programs.

The UCEDD is designated by the Association for Community Living/Association on Disabilities and is organized by the 5 core functions in the Developmental Disabilities Act (Interdisciplinary Pre-Service Preparation and Continuing Education, Community Services: T/TA, Community Services: Model Services, Research, and Information Dissemination to address needs related to Health (Mental Health and Physical Health), Postsecondary and Employment.

TC has served in this role since the network of such centers was authorized in the 1960’s. Our program was renamed in 2001 to honor the late Dr. George Tarjan, a UCLA Child Psychiatrist. In 1961, Dr. Tarjan served as Vice Chair of the first Presidents’ Panel on Intellectual Disabilities (formerly known as mental retardation) established by President John F. Kennedy.