Bio

Betsy Kennard, Psy.D., ABPP, is currently a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. As the former Program Director of the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at UT Southwestern from 2009 to May 2023, Dr. Kennard has contributed to the training of over 200 clinical psychologists across the country. Her expertise is in pediatric depression and suicide prevention. She currently acts as Program Director of the Suicide Prevention and Resilience Program at Children's Health, an intensive outpatient treatment program for suicidal youth, where over 2000 youth and their families have been treated. The suicide program was adapted for a community mental health setting, including providing training to local clinicians on intervention strategies for suicidal youth.

Dr. Kennard has served as a site co-investigator in four multi-site treatment studies of adolescent depression and suicide funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). She co-authored cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) treatment manuals for these studies. Dr. Kennard also developed a CBT sequential treatment strategy to prevent relapse in youth with depression in a NIMH-funded treatment study. More recently she has conducted research in social media and mental health outcomes in clinical populations.