Krithika Prakash, Ph.D., is a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) T32 post-doctoral scholar in the Developmental Alcohol Research Training (DART) Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. Under the mentorship of Dr. Sarah Pedersen, Ph.D., her research focuses on trauma, particularly racial trauma and discrimination, and its link to alcohol and other substance use disorders. Dr. Prakash's research involves addressing measurement bias and equivalence, ensuring that psychological and clinical measures are valid and reliable across diverse samples. She is interested in investigating whether instruments perform consistently across different groups and contexts and develops new methodologies or adaptations when discrepancies are found.

Dr. Prakash leverages existing datasets and advanced statistical methods to extract new insights and maximize the utility of data. She has worked with datasets such as the Longitudinal Studies on Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), Project Harmony, and the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH).

Committed to providing strong mentorship and training, Dr. Prakash has developed and implemented programs on mentorship at conferences and departmental meetings. These initiatives are designed to support individuals who encounter barriers to accessing resources and have been historically and systematically marginalized within academia. Additionally, she actively engages in translating research into actionable policy recommendations, particularly in the areas of SUD and mental health prevention and treatment. As part of the Research-to-Policy collaboration at Pennsylvania State University, she contributes to fact sheets, policy briefs, and discussions with federal and state-level policymakers, providing evidence-based support for their legislative goals.

Current Research Projects

• JAM
• CREATE