Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

Vanessa Serrano graduated summa cum laude from San Diego State University (SDSU) with dual B.A.s in psychology and communication and a minor in general biology. While an undergraduate, she was selected for the NIA Advancing Diversity in Aging Research Program through which she conducted research at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program. She was then admitted to the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program (JDP) in Clinical Psychology, where she was first funded as a NIDA T32 predoctoral fellow before receiving her own NIMH F31 and HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center Developmental Award. Clinically, she completed inpatient and outpatient practica through community clinics, UC San Diego Health, and the San Diego VA. Through one clinic, Vanessa developed a partnership with a community college to fund students to attend group therapy. Concurrent with this, she earned an Emphasis in Quantitative Methods as well as a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology, during which she contributed to a project providing health education to youth living in an agricultural community in Mexico. Throughout her doctoral program, Vanessa earned several awards, including the Outstanding Doctoral Teaching Award, the Dorathe Frick Memorial Scholarship (awarded for exceptional service), and the California State University Doctoral Incentive Award. During her clinical psychology pre-doctoral internship at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, she worked under the research supervision of Dr. Elena Salmoirago-Blotcher. Vanessa is delighted to continue as a postdoctoral fellow at Brown in the Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine T32 under the mentorship of Dr. Kathryn Demos.