Dr. Kate Wolitzky-Taylor obtained her B.A. summa cum laude in psychology from Emory University, where she completed her undergraduate research assistantship in the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program. She obtained her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, obtaining clinical and research training in the Laboratory for the Study of Anxiety Disorders. Dr. Wolitzky-Taylor received a predoctoral National Research Service Award (NRSA, F31) from by NIMH in order to examine self-administered behavioral treatments for pathological worry. Dr. Wolitzky-Taylor completed her predoctoral internship at the Medical University of South Carolina in the Traumatic Stress Track, where she was on an NIMH-funded trauma-related training grant (T32). She completed a 3-year postdoctoral research fellowship at UCLA in the Anxiety Disorders Research Center where she was the Project Director of the Youth Emotion Project, an NIMH-funded R01 examining common and specific risk factors for anxiety and depression.
Dr. Wolitzky-Taylor has been the Principal Investigator for several NIDA- and NIAAA-funded studies that aim to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive and behavioral therapies for comorbid substance use disorders and anxiety (and related) disorders, including a K23 and multiple R34s.
She is currently a Principal Investigator on an NIMH-funded P50 ALACRITY Center, which aims to improve the effectiveness, implementation, and sustainability of a model of care for the treatment of anxiety and depression. She is also a Principal Investigator on an NIDA-funded R21 that aims to reduce benzodiazepine use among primary care patients who are co-prescribed benzodiazepines and opioids. She is a co-Investigator on the Greater Southern California Node of the NIDA Clinical Trials Network. Her primary research interests include understanding the nature of comorbid anxiety and substance use disorders, developing and evaluating treatments for comorbid anxiety and substance use disorders, and improving access to evidence-based treatment for anxiety and substance use disorders in community settings. In addition to her research, Dr. Wolitzky-Taylor treats patients in the Faculty Practice Adult Outpatient Clinic in the Department of Psychiatry and the Biobehavioral Sciences. She has extensive experience in training and supervising clinical psychology doctoral students and psychiatry residents in delivering CBT and in research methods.
