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Geraldine Dawson, PhD

William Cleland Distinguished Professor
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Professor in Pediatrics
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Division: 
Child & Family Mental Health & Developmental Neuroscience
Office: 2608 Erwin Road, Room 3126, Duke University Med Center, Durham, NC 27705
Campus Mail: DUMC Box 3527 DUMC, Durham, NC 27710

Geraldine Dawson is the William Cleland Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University, where she also is Professor of Pediatrics and Psychology & Neuroscience. Dawson is the Director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences whose mission is to promote interdisciplinary brain science and translate discoveries into solutions for health and society.  Dawson also is Director of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development, an NIH Autism Center of Excellence, which is an interdisciplinary research program and clinic, aimed to improve the lives of those with autism through research, education, clinical services, and policy.  Dawson is Associate Director of the Marcus Center for Cellular Cures which aims to discover cellular treatments that can improve outcomes and quality of life for individuals with autism.  Dawson received a Ph.D. in Developmental and Child Clinical Psychology from the University of Washington and completed a clinical internship at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute.

Dawson previously served as President of the International Society for Autism Research and was appointed by the US Secretary of Health as a member of the NIH Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) which develops the federal strategic plan for autism research, services, and policy. Dawson was Founding Director of the University of Washington (UW) Autism Center and the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development, Dawson was awarded the American Psychological Association Distinguished Career Award (Div53); Association for Psychological Science Lifetime Achievement Award; Clarivate Top 1% Cited Researcher Across All Scientific Fields; NIH Top Research Advances of the Year Award (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018); Autism Society of America Award for Research Contributions; Autism Society Medical Professional of the Year; and Autism Society Award for Valuable Service. Dawson is a Fellow of the American Psychological Society and American Psychological Association, and is Associate Editor or on editorial boards of four scientific journals. 

Education and Training

  • Clinical Internsship with speciality in Developmental Disabilities, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California - Los Angeles, 1979 - 1980
  • Ph.D., University of Washington, 1979

In the News

Selected Grants

Publications

Chakraborty, Payal, Kimberly L. H. Carpenter, Samantha Major, Megan Deaver, Saritha Vermeer, Brianna Herold, Lauren Franz, Jill Howard, and Geraldine Dawson. “Gastrointestinal problems are associated with increased repetitive behaviors but not social communication difficulties in young children with autism spectrum disorders.” Autism 25, no. 2 (February 2021): 405–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361320959503.

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Tenenbaum, Elena J., Samantha Major, Kimberly L. H. Carpenter, Jill Howard, Michael Murias, and Geraldine Dawson. “Distance from Typical Scan Path When Viewing Complex Stimuli in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and its Association with Behavior.” J Autism Dev Disord, January 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04812-w.

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Dawson, Geraldine, and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Reply.” J Pediatr, December 1, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.11.064.

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MacDuffie, Katherine E., Jeffrey Munson, Jessica Greenson, Teresa M. Ward, Sally J. Rogers, Geraldine Dawson, and Annette Estes. “Sleep Problems and Trajectories of Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities.” J Autism Dev Disord 50, no. 11 (November 2020): 3844–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04438-y.

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Engelhard, Matthew M., Samuel I. Berchuck, Jyotsna Garg, Ricardo Henao, Andrew Olson, Shelley Rusincovitch, Geraldine Dawson, and Scott H. Kollins. “Health system utilization before age 1 among children later diagnosed with autism or ADHD.” Sci Rep 10, no. 1 (October 19, 2020): 17677. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-74458-2.

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Kaliukhovich, Dzmitry A., Nikolay V. Manyakov, Abigail Bangerter, Seth Ness, Andrew Skalkin, Matthew S. Goodwin, Geraldine Dawson, et al. “Social attention to activities in children and adults with autism spectrum disorder: effects of context and age.” Mol Autism 11, no. 1 (October 19, 2020): 79. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-020-00388-5.

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Sikich, Linmarie, Nicole Heilbron, Gary R. Maslow, Kendra L. Rosa, Kristen Stefureac, and Geraldine Dawson. “BUILDING PROGRAMS THAT INCREASE ACCESS TO MENTAL HEALTH CARE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH, WHILE EXPANDING THE EVIDENCE BASE TO ENHANCE ACCESS AND IMPROVE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT.” In Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 59:S119–20. Elsevier BV, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.08.021.

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Major, Samantha, Kathleen Campbell, Steven Espinosa, Jeffrey P. Baker, Kimberly Lh Carpenter, Guillermo Sapiro, Saritha Vermeer, and Geraldine Dawson. “Impact of a digital Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers-Revised on likelihood and age of autism diagnosis and referral for developmental evaluation.” Autism 24, no. 7 (October 2020): 1629–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361320916656.

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Sun, Jessica M., Geraldine Dawson, Lauren Franz, Jill Howard, Colleen McLaughlin, Bethany Kistler, Barbara Waters-Pick, Norin Meadows, Jesse Troy, and Joanne Kurtzberg. “Infusion of human umbilical cord tissue mesenchymal stromal cells in children with autism spectrum disorder.” Stem Cells Transl Med 9, no. 10 (October 2020): 1137–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.19-0434.

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Kaliukhovich, Dzmitry A., Nikolay V. Manyakov, Abigail Bangerter, Seth Ness, Andrew Skalkin, Matthew Boice, Matthew S. Goodwin, et al. “Visual Preference for Biological Motion in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study.” J Autism Dev Disord, September 20, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04707-w.

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