Amanda Norona-Zhou, PhD

Dr. Noroña-Zhou is the Assistant Director of the Intergenerational Developmental Health Programs (IDHP) and the Division of Developmental Medicine, a research scientist in the UCSF Center for Health and Community, and a licensed Clinical Psychologist. Dr. Noroña-Zhou conducts research on prenatal and intergenerational influences on child and family wellbeing and the role that malleable, policy-relevant social factors can play in both preventing family stress exposures as well as supporting families already exposed to stress. In her role as Assistant Director of IDHP, she is working to develop clearer pathways for social scientists to translate and disseminate their findings into programs and policies that improve the lives of families in our communities. She also serves as a prenatal stress science consultant for several NIH- and philanthropy-funded prospective, longitudinal research projects, including the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) PATHWAYS study, the SEED prenatal programming study, and the TIDES multi-site prenatal programming study. As a second-generational Filipino American, Dr. Noroña-Zhou also works to advance the adoption of anti-racist, decolonized frameworks and methods in the scientific process.

Dr. Noroña-Zhou completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at UCLA, where her research examined the development of emotion regulation in childhood, a risk factor for various mental health difficulties across the lifespan; her clinical training focused on child and family mental health. She completed her capstone clinical internship in child health psychology from Children’s Hospital Colorado, where she received specialty training in providing integrated developmental, behavioral, and mental health services in pediatric primary care. She then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in developmental psychopathology and prenatal programming at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Across these experiences, Dr. Noroña-Zhou gained expertise in maternal-child mental health, integrated behavioral healthcare, psychobiological indices of stress, and family-based treatments for childhood anxiety, trauma, disruptive behaviors, and depression.