Michelle G. Craske, PhD, is co-director of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge and co-director of the UCLA STAND for Community Colleges Innovation Center. She pioneered the STAND system of care and oversees its execution in its capacities as DGC research as well as standalone treatment at UCLA and, from 2021-2023, East Los Angeles College. She also leads the UCLA STAND for Community Colleges Innovation Center.
Craske’s research aligns closely with the Depression Grand Challenge’s aim to understand the causes of depression and develop more effective treatments for depression. She studies how environmental factors, biological factors and neurocircuitry influence the risk of developing anxiety and depression. She uses the information gathered from her research to develop more effective treatments that directly target these risk factors. She is inspired by the scale and the interdisciplinary nature of the Depression Grand Challenge, which she believes will change how we study, understand, and treat depression.
In conjunction with her involvement with the Depression Grand Challenge, Craske is also a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, director of the UCLA Anxiety and Depression Research Center, and associate director of the UCLA Staglin Family Music Center for Behavioral and Brain Health. She holds the Kevin Love Fund Centennial Chair in Psychology.
