Dr. Richards joined faculty at UCLA in 2017 as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. She serves as the Associate Medical Director of the newly developed UCLA Perinatal Partial Hospitalization and Intensive Outpatient Programs, where her focus is on Infant Mental Health and promoting secure attachment between mother and child. She became interested in mental health research during her undergraduate studies in psychobiology at UCLA, eventually becoming an NIH Undergraduate Research Fellow. Upon matriculating to medical school at Albany Medical College, Dr. Richards knew she wanted to specialize in psychiatry and contribute to the growing evidence base. She obtained a joint M.D./M.S. in Neuroscience and completed a Fulbright Scholarship in Medicine in Tokyo, Japan. She returned to UCLA for Adult Residency and Child Fellowship Psychiatry Training, where she focuses on perinatal mood disorders and infant secure attachment. In her Friends Scholar Project, Dr. Richards will examine the relationship between SSRI response in maternal depression and maternal plasma oxytocin levels, and how this influences the quality of early mother-infant interactions.