John T. Walkup, M.D.

John T. Walkup, M.D., is the Chair, of the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Professor of Psychiatry at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor in the Center for American Indian Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Walkup’s work covers three main areas of innovation and investigation. His work with movement disorders, specifically Tourette syndrome, uniquely spans psychiatry, child psychiatry and neurology. His expertise in child and adolescent psychiatry clinical trials focuses on the development and evaluation of psychopharmacological and psychosocial treatments and lastly, he has been involved in developing and evaluating interventions to reduce the large mental health disparities facing Native American youth, specifically drug use and suicide prevention. Over his career, Dr. Walkup has been awarded over $35 million in grants and contracts to support his research. Including current funding from Patient Centered Outcome Research Institute and the Kellogg Foundation.

Karen Wagner, M.D., Ph.D.

Karen Dineen Wagner, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She is Past President of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and current President of the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians. Dr. Wagner is an internationally recognized expert in the pharmacological treatment of childhood mood disorders. Her work has contributed to the development of evidence-based treatments for children and adolescents with major depression and bipolar disorder.

Andrea Spencer, M.D.

Dr. Andrea Spencer is the Vice Chair for Research in the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a child psychiatrist, expert in pediatric integrated behavioral health care and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and child mental health equity researcher.

She received her B.A. in music from Yale College, her M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed pediatrics internship, psychiatry residency, and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship in the combined five-year Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean program. Dr. Spencer’s research focuses on developing new models of care to reduce racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in mental health treatment and outcomes for children with ADHD and related psychiatric disorders. She is passionate about facilitating community, youth, and family-led strategies to reduce mental health disparities. Her recent work has included the development of community health worker interventions using mixed methods to increase engagement in care and access to resources for children with ADHD, as well as investigation of risk and protective factors for suicidal thoughts and behavior among Black children with ADHD to inform suicide prevention strategies. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and multiple foundations. Dr. Spencer has led integrated behavioral health programs in pediatric primary care settings and is proud to be a bilingual (Spanish, non-native) mental health provider. She loves mentoring students, trainees, and faculty to inspire the next generation of public health-minded mental health professionals.

Christopher J. McDougle, M.D.

Christopher J. McDougle, M.D. is the Director of the Lurie Center for Autism at Massachusetts General Hospital and MassGeneral Hospital for Children, and is also the Nancy Lurie Marks Professor in the Field of Autism at Harvard Medical School. Dr. McDougle is an internationally recognized expert in the neurobiology and neuropsychopharmacology of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, across the lifespan. His research interests also include the etiology and pathophysiology of syndromes associated with intellectual disability.

Dr. McDougle received a B.A. in chemistry from Valparaiso University in 1981 (with Highest Distinction) and an M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1986 (with Highest Distinction and election into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society). He subsequently completed a residency in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine (1990) and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center (1995). After seven years on the faculty at Yale, Dr. McDougle joined the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) in 1997 as the Raymond E. Houk Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In September of 2000, Dr. McDougle was named the Albert Eugene Sterne Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the IUSM. He continued as Director of the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, as well. In the fall of 2011, Dr. McDougle became the Director of the Lurie Center for Autism and the Nancy Lurie Marks Professor in the Field of Autism at Harvard Medical School.

Aron Janssen, M.D.

Aron Janssen, M.D., is a clinical associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry and Vice Chair of the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and the founder and formal clinical director of the Gender and Sexuality Service at NYU. Dr. Janssen's areas of expertise include LGBTQ mental health, gender identity and sexual orientation development, suicide prevention, ADHD, anxiety and mood disorders, and psychopharmacology.

Dr. Janssen is a member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Psychiatric Association, and World Professional Association for Transgender Health. In addition, Dr. Janssen has widely published and presented on LGBTQ issues in medicine at locally, nationally and internationally, and on television and radio.