Stefanie Mayer, PhD

Stefanie Mayer is a clinical scientist at the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She obtained her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2017.

Stefanie`s research focuses on the biopsychosocial pathways by which stress exposure – throughout the lifespan – can get “under the skin” and increase risk for adverse mental and physical health outcomes. She has a particular interest in examining stress and adversity during the early developmental years as these experiences produce lifelong alterations in psychological and biological (e.g., neuroendocrine, immune, cellular aging) processes that shape responses to stress later in life (e.g., chronic stress during adulthood), which can have detrimental health consequences. Stefanie seeks to understand these pathways, and develop more effective interventions to reverse the negative effects of early life stress. She is particularly interested in tailoring mindfulness and compassion based approaches to promote stress resilience in those exposed to early adversity.