Claudia Lugo-Candelas, Ph.D., obtained a B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Lugo-Candelas joined the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division as a T32 postdoctoral research fellow, mentored by Drs. Jonathan Posner and Cristiane Duarte. In 2018, she joined the faculty and in 2020 was named the Estelle P. Bender, MD VP&S ’68 and T. Richard Fishbein Scholar in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Lugo-Candelas’ overarching research interest is to better understand the early development of inhibitory control difficulties, particularly within developmental disorders such as ADHD. She uses MRI methodologies including infant neuroimaging to examine how exposures and experiences during the prenatal period place offspring at risk for inhibitory control disorders. She is particularly committed to understanding the exposures and experiences that are most relevant to communities that are underserved and underrepresented, including underprivileged and ethnic and racial minorities.  Her work is funded by the NIH, NARSAD, and Columbia University pilot awards. Most importantly, Dr. Lugo-Candelas strongly believes diversity and equity are indispensable to the development of sound science and public health.  She is an advocate for increasing access to higher education and increasing the representation of racial and ethnic minorities within the STEM fields, psychiatry and neuroscience included. She works with a number of non-profit organizations and serves as a mentor to high school and undergraduate students from communities that are underprivileged and underrepresented in the field.

Bio and image via Columbia University