Anna R. Docherty, PhD, LP portrait
  • Assistant Director, Office Of Sr Vp Health Sci, Clinical and Translational Research Institute
  • Associate Professor, Psychiatry
801-213-6905
http://www.pglab.org

Research Summary

Dr. Docherty is a quantitative geneticist and a clinical psychologist, examining genetic risk and resilience in the context of severe outcomes including psychosis and suicide. She is particularly focused on risk across ancestral populations and in emerging adulthood.

Education

  • Advanced Quantitative Molecular Genetics, Psychiatry, Institute for Behavior Genetics, University of Colorado at Boulder
  • Fellowship in Quantitative Genetics (NIMH T32), Psychiatry, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric & Behavioral Genetics
  • Advanced Structural Equation Modeling for Genetics Studies, Psychiatry, University of Colorado-Boulder
  • Fellowship in Behavioral Genetics (NIMH F31 NRSA), Psychiatry & Psychology, University of Minnesota
  • Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia
  • Early Assessment of Psychosis Certification, Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine
  • M.S. , Clinical Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia
  • B.A., English, Oberlin College and Conservatory

Biography

Dr. Docherty is a clinical psychologist and statistical geneticist. She examines genetic risk and resilience in the context of severe psychiatric outcomes. Dr. Docherty completed individual predoctoral and postdoctoral (F31 and K01) NIMH research fellowships to study the genetics of psychosis and treatment-resistant depression. This led to a focus on leveraging computational genomics across ancestral populations to enhance our understanding of risk for severe outcomes, and to better understand and predict treatment response in psychosis and depression.

Dr. Docherty currently leads two NIMH R01 research projects focused on improving our understanding of biological risk of suicide across global populations: One involves multi-ancestry genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and polygenic risk modeling of population-based suicide death in the U.S. The other involves the development of a brain tissue and blood biobank and postmortem suicide death based in Delhi, India. The latter project is supported by the Fogarty International Center and led in partnership with Co-PI Dr. Chittaranjan Behera at the All-India Institute for Medical Sciences.  

Dr. Docherty helps lead global research and LMIC capacity-building as a member of the Steering Committee of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), and as Co-Chair of the Suicide Working Group of the PGC. She is a contributing PI to several other PGC working groups (MDD, Anxiety, Schizophrenia, PTSD, ADHD, Substance Use Disorders, and the Latin American Genomics Consortium). She is Assistant Director of the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute at the University of Utah. She is also Site PI, teaching faculty, and Associate Course Director for Advanced Statistical Training for Imaging and Genetics, an NIH-funded R25 workshop conducted at the University of Utah. 

Dr. Docherty serves as Assistant Director of the University Health Sciences Clinical and Translational Sciences Research Institute (CTSI). With interests in public policy and bioethics in psychiatry, Dr. Docherty also serves as Co-Chair of the Ethics & Public Policy Committee of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. She contributes to the PGC Genetics of ECT initiative, to HMHI analyses of ketamine outcomes in treatment-resistant depression, and to the Treatment-Resistant Depression Task Group of the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC). And as a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Docherty provides supervision and intervention focused on evidence-based group, family, and individual psychotherapies for the management of depression, anxiety, and psychosis. She also serves as a mental health provider liaison for the University of Utah Transgender Health Program. 

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Docherty is licensed to practice in Utah.