Tara Niendam, PhD
EPI-CAL Principal Investigator,
Professor in Residence
& Executive Director of UC Davis SacEDAPT Clinic,
Department of Psychiatry,
University of California, Davis
Dr. Niendam is a Professor in Psychiatry and completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. As the Executive Director of the UC Davis Early Psychosis Programs (EDAPT and SacEDAPT Clinics), Dr. Niendam supervises clinic and training activities, and coordinates outreach and educational presentations within Sacramento and across California. She has developed 4 early psychosis programs in Northern California based on the coordinated specialty care model of early psychosis. Overall, her research focuses on improving clinical and functional outcomes for youth with serious mental illness across four key themes: 1) Elucidating factors that contribute to real world functioning and clinical outcome across psychiatric disorders, 2) Evaluating the impact of interventions on outcomes in psychosis, 3) Developing technology-enhanced methods to improve identification and enhance treatment, and 4) Dissemination of best practices for early psychosis care. With prior funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and UC Davis Behavioral Health Center of Excellence, she developed and tested a technology enhanced data collection platform in multiple community based clinics, demonstrating how data can be used to enhance EP care in community settings. As a Co-I on an NIMH-funded project to reduce the duration of untreated psychosis in Sacramento, she led the creation and implementation of a tablet-based app to screen for early psychosis in community settings to support rapid referral to care. She is the PI for the California EPI-CAL network, which joins 17 sites to the national EPINET network that seeks to harmonize EP outcomes data collection across the US.
