Ayesha Sujan, PhD

People

Ayesha Sujan, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research specializing in maternal mental health and substance use. She completed her doctoral training in the Department of Psychological and Brian Sciences at Indiana University – Bloomington in Spring 2020 and her clinical internship at the Medical University of South Carolina in Summer 2021. Though her doctoral training focused on clinical psychology, her training spanned multiple disciplines, including developmental psychology, epidemiology, and pharmacology. She also received her master's degree in Human Development from Cornell University and did her ungraduated studies at Tulane University where she double majored in psychology and studio art.  

Broadly speaking, she conducts translational research focused on preventing early exposure to risk factors from having adverse consequences on child development. Her research initially focused on early-life adversities, particularly abuse and neglect, and then expanded to include the prenatal period. Though she studies the consequences of a number of pregnancy-related risk factors, including early and advancing maternal age at childbearing and short and long interpregnancy interval, her work mainly focuses on prenatal exposure to psychoactive substances (e.g., antidepressants, opioids, and cannabis) and risk for adverse birth outcomes (e.g., preterm birth) and neurodevelopmental problems (e.g., autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).