Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Chair of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

Overview

Dr. Tyrka is Mary E. Zucker Professor and Chair, of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior.  She received her MD and PhD in medicine and psychology through a combined program at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. Dr. Tyrka completed psychiatry residency training at Brown and further research training in clinical neuroscience at the Mood Disorders Research Program and Laboratory for Clinical Neuroscience at Butler Hospital. Dr. Tyrka is Co-Director of the Center for Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR), which includes the STAR COBRE Center and a STAR Research Postdoctoral Fellowship T32 program. Internationally known for her groundbreaking work on early adversity, Dr. Tyrka has made  discoveries of neuroendocrine, epigenetic, and biological aging processes that are now widely understood to underlie stress-associated mental and physical health conditions. She has also contributed to pharmacologic, behavioral, and neuromodulation treatments trials for depression and is an attending psychiatrist in the Butler Hospital Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Clinic. A dedicated mentor and leader in research training, Dr. Tyrka is PI of our  NIMH-funded R25 Research Training Program for physician scientists in psychiatry training. The Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior is committed to measurable policies and practices that foster diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and promote anti-racism within our education, research, and clinical care settings and the community at large. A member of the Community Advisory Board of Sojourner House, Dr. Tyrka is also a painter and mixed-media artist, and she contributes the proceeds from her art toward their mission to support people affected by domestic and sexual violence.

Brown Affiliations

Research Areas