Dr. Tyrka received her MD and PhD in medicine and psychology through a combined program at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed psychiatry residency at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and further research training in clinical neuroscience at the Mood Disorders Research Program at Butler Hospital. A member of the Brown faculty since 2003, Dr. Tyrka most recently served as the Vice Chair of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown and Chief Scientific Officer at Care New England. She has led the Laboratory for Clinical and Translational Neuroscience since 2011 and was Director of Research at Butler Hospital from 2014-2021.
In addition to her role as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Dr. Tyrka is Co-Director of the Center for Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR), which includes the STAR COBRE Center and a STAR Research Postdoctoral Fellowship T32 program. Dr. Tyrka is internationally known for her groundbreaking work on early adversity, including discoveries of neuroendocrine, epigenetic, and biological aging processes that are now widely understood to underlie stress-associated mental and physical health conditions. Dr. Tyrka has also contributed to pharmacologic, behavioral, and neuromodulation treatments trials for depression and is an attending psychiatrist in the Butler Hospital Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Clinic.
A dedicated mentor and leader in research training, Dr. Tyrka is the PI of our NIMH-funded R25 Research Training Program for physician scientists in psychiatry training. The Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior is committed to measurable policies and practices that foster diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and promote anti-racism within the department’s education, research, and clinical care settings and the community at large. A member of the Community Advisory Board of Sojourner House, Dr. Tyrka is also a painter and mixed-media artist, and she contributes the proceeds from her art toward their mission to support people affected by domestic and sexual violence.