Dr. Paley is the Director of the Early Childhood Core (ECC) for the Nathanson Family Resilience Center, Director of the Strategies for Enhancing Early Developmental Success (SEEDS) Program, and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The primary aims of the ECC are to conduct prevention and early intervention research, provide direct clinical services, and conduct training for community providers and the next generation of early childhood mental health professionals, all with the goal of supporting healthy development and well-being in young children and their families. Dr. Paley’s research and clinical work are focused on prevention and intervention with high-risk children and their families.

Dr. Paley is the Principal Investigator on two federally-funded grants focused on providing early interventions to young children with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and their parents and caregivers. SEEDS-IT (Strategies for Enhancing Early Development Success – Infants and Toddlers), funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, aims to enhance parenting skills, promote more positive parent-child relationships, and improve child self-regulation among children with PAE aged 1-24 months and their parents. SEEDS – School Readiness, funded by the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, seeks to build self-regulation, socioemotional competence, and early literacy and numeracy skills in children with PAE aged 3-5 years, as well as promote home-school connections and enhance parents’ engagement in their children’s early school experiences. In addition to directing her own research grants, Dr. Paley also provides scientific guidance for the other research initiatives within the ECC.

Dr. Paley received her doctoral degree from UCLA in clinical psychology and completed a NIMH research postdoctoral fellowship in family risk and resilience at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a clinical postdoctoral fellowship at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital.