Jennifer Silk PhD

Dr. Silk’s research focuses on better understanding how individual differences and developmental changes in emotionality contribute to the development of affective psychopathology, such as anxiety, depression, and suicidality during adolescence. What is unique about her work is the focus on the interplay among youths’ social environments and underlying neurobiological vulnerabilities in understanding risk for affective psychopathology. She uses tools at different levels of analysis, including ecological momentary assessment, behavioral observation, eyetracking, and neuroimaging. She was recognized for sustained scholarly contributions to the field of psychology in 2017 by her election as a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. She has been highly involved in mentoring, having served as a mentor or co-mentor to 10 postdoctoral fellows, 7 NIMH K01 Awardees, and 13 doctoral students. She was honored for her commitment to post-doctoral mentoring as the national winner of the 2015 National Postdoctoral Association’s Mentor Award and the local winner of the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association’s Postdoctoral Mentor Award.