Mary O'Connor
Ph.D., ABPP

Adjunct Professor
Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Rm 68-265A Semel Institute
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California at Los Angeles
310 206-6528
moconnor@mednet.ucla.edu

Education
Ph.D. Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1977
B.A., Psychology, Wake Forest University, 1966

Fellowships
NIMH Predoctoral Fellowship, Department of Psychology, UCLA
NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
Developmental Disabilities Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA

Biographical Sketch
Dr. O'Connor is a child clinical psychologist who has served on the UCLA School of Medicine faculty since joining the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in 1981. Dr. O'Connor earned her B.A. in psychology at Wake Forest University and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at UCLA. She holds a specialty board certification in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and has taught medical students, psychiatry residents, and child psychiatry fellows for over 20 years. She is a recipient of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences Outstanding House Staff Teaching Award. She is currently the Training Director for the Tarjan Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. The overarching emphasis of Dr. O’Connor’s research career has been the development, evaluation, and dissemination of empirically supported assessment and treatment methods for high-risk children. Her early work focused on the longitudinal outcome of children with premature birth. Her current work examines psychosocial and psychiatric risk due to prenatal alcohol exposure. Dr. O’Connor has conducted research on the prevention of alcohol consumption in pregnant women, intervention with children with prenatal alcohol exposure, and medical and allied health education on prevention, diagnosis and treatment. All of her work has focused on collaborative national initiatives with the long-term goal of developing best practice models to be disseminated on local, state, and national levels. Dr. O'Connor has served on a number of national panels as an expert in prenatal alcohol exposure. She currently is on the National Task Force for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects, an appointed body that reports directly to Congress.

Recent Publications Carmichael-Olson, H., O’CONNOR, M.J., and Fitzgerald, H.E. Lessons learned from study of the developmental impact of parental alcohol use. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22(3):271-290 (2001).

O’CONNOR, M. J. Prenatal alcohol exposure and infant negative affect as precursors of depressive features in children. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22(3):291-299 (2001).

Whaley, S.E., O’CONNOR, M.J., and Gunderson, B. Comparison of the adaptive functioning of children prenatally exposed to alcohol to a nonexposed clinical sample. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 25(7):1018-1024 (2001).

O’CONNOR, M.J., Kogan, N., and Findlay, R. Prenatal alcohol exposure and attachment behavior in children. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 26(10): 1592-1602 (2002).

O’CONNOR, M.J., Shah, B., Whaley, S.E. Cronin, P., Gunderson, B., and Graham, J. Psychiatric illness in a clinical sample of children with prenatal alcohol exposure.The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 28(4):743-754 (2002).

Whaley, S.E. & O’CONNOR, M.J. Increasing the report of alcohol use among low-income pregnant women. American Journal of Health Promotion, 17:369-372 (2003).

O’CONNOR, M.J. & Whaley, S.E. Alcohol use in pregnant low-income women in WIC. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 64:772-783 (2003).

Bertrand, J., Floyd, R.L., Weber, M.K., O’CONNOR, M., Riley, E., Johnson, K.A., & Cohen, D.E. National Task Force on FAS/FAE. Fetal alcohol syndrome: Guidelines for referral and diagnosis. Screening and brief intervention. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2004).

Paley, B., O’CONNOR, M.J., Kogan, N., & Findlay, R. Prenatal alcohol exposure, child externalizing behavior, and maternal stress. Parenting Science and Practice, 3(1): 29-56 (2005).

Baillie, S., Paley, B., Guiton, G., O’CONNOR, M.J., Stuber, M. Weaving in important curricular topics: Using Fetal Alcohol Syndrome as an integrating theme in medical education. Medical Education, 39: 505 (2005).

Floyd, R. L., O’CONNOR, M.J., Sokol, R., Bertrand, J., & Cordero, J.F. Recognition and Prevention of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 106 (5): 1059-1064 (2005).

O’CONNOR, M.J. & Paley, B., The relationship of prenatal alcohol exposure and the postnatal environment to child depressive symptoms. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 31 (1): 50-64 (2006)

O’CONNOR, M.J. & Whaley, S.E., Health care provider advice and risk factors associated with alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67: 22-31 (2006).

Macayran, J., Brodie, S., O'CONNOR, M., Gray, J., Ciarimboli, B., and Dipple, K. Duplication 8q22.1-q24.1 Associated with Bipolar Disorder and Speech Delay. Bipolar Disorders 8: 294-298 (2006).

Floyd, R.L., O’CONNOR, M.J., Bertrand, J., & Sokol, R. Reducing adverse outcomes from prenatal alcohol exposure: A clinical plan of action, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 10 (8): 1-5 (2006).

O’CONNOR, M.J., Frankel, F., Paley, B., Schonfeld, A.M., Carpenter, E., Laugeson, E. & Marquardt, R. A controlled social skills training for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74 (4): 639-648 (2006).

Floyd, R.L., Ebrahim, S., Tsai, J., O’CONNOR, M.J. & Sokol, R. Strategies to reduce alcohol-exposed pregnancies, Maternal Child Health Journal, 10, 149-151 (2006).

Schonfeld, A.M., Paley, B. Frankel, F., & O’CONNOR, M.J. Executive functioning predicts social skills following prenatal alcohol exposure, Child Neuropsychology, 12 (6), 439-452 (2006).

Gahagan, S., Sharpe, T.T., Brimacombe, M., Fry-Johnson, Y., Levine, R., Mengel, M., O’CONNOR, M.J., Paley, B., Adubato, S., Brenneman, G. Pediatricians’ knowledge, training, and experience in the care of children with fetal alcohol syndrome, Pediatrics, 118, 657-668 (2006).

Paley, B., O’CONNOR, M.J., Frankel, F., & Marquardt, R. Predictors of stress in parents of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 27 (5), 396-404 (2006).

O’CONNOR, M.J., McCracken, J., & Best, A. Under recognition of prenatal alcohol exposure in a child inpatient psychiatric setting, Mental Health Aspects of Developmental Disabilities, 9 (4), 105-108 (2006).

Frankel, F., Paley, B., Marquardt, R. & O’CONNOR, M.J. Stimulants, neuroleptics and children's friendship training in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 16, 777-789.(2006).

O’CONNOR, M.J. & Whaley, S.E. Brief intervention for alcohol use with pregnant women in the WIC setting, The American Journal of Public Health, 97 (2), 252-258 (2007).

Sowell, E.R., Lu, L.H., O’Hare, E.D., McCourt, S.T., Mattson, S.N., O’CONNOR, M.J., Bookheimer, S.Y. FMRI of verbal learning in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure, NeuroReport, 18(7), 635-639 (2007).

Laugeson, E.A., Paley, B., Schonfeld, A., Frankel, F., Carpenter, E.M., & O'CONNOR, M. J. Social skills training for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Adaptations for manualized behavioral treatment, Child and Family Behavior Therapy, 29 (3), 57-69 (2007).

FASD Regional Training Centers Consortium. Educating health professionals about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, American Journal of Health Education, in press.

Paley, B. & O’CONNOR, M.J. Neurocognitive and neurobehavioral impairments in individuals with Fetal Alcohol spectrum Disorders, International Journal on Disability and Human Development, in press.

Walthall, J. C., O’CONNOR, M.J., Paley, B. A comparison of psychopathology in children with and without prenatal alcohol exposure, Mental Health Aspects of Developmental Disabilities, in press.