Jeffrey Wood is an Associate Professor in the Division of Human Development and Psychology in the Education Department at UCLA, with a joint appointment in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the UCLA Psychology Department, specializing in clinical trials of cognitive behavioral therapy for childhood anxiety disorders and OCD.
Dr. Wood was the PI of a CART Pilot Grant in 2004. He has since been the recipient of several awards from NIH, AERA, and UCLA, and has attained multiple grants from NIH, Autism Speaks, and the Organization for Autism Research to study cognitive behavioral interventions for school-aged children with autism. His work has been published in well-regarded scientific journals such as Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Developmental Psychology, and Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Drawing upon contemporary cognitive science models of memory retrieval competition and cognitive neuroscience models of information processing in autism, Dr. Wood has been developing novel intervention techniques and adapting techniques from other areas of childhood psychopathology (e.g., emotional disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, and habit disorders) in the formation of a comprehensive cognitive behavioral therapy program for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders and high levels of anxiety. Dr. Wood’s research seeks to identify effective treatment methods that improve self-regulation, increase adaptive behaviors in social and academic contexts, and address the varying patterns of symptom expression (e.g., repetitive behaviors) and psychiatric comorbidity (e.g., anxiety, conduct problems) seen in many children with ASD.
Dr. Wood is currently Principal Investigator on the Anxiety-Focused Interventions for Youth with Autism project, a 3-site study of CBT for children and adolescents with autism and anxiety funded by NICHD, and the Treatment of Autism Symptoms in Children study for elementary school aged children, which is funded by NIMH.