Elizabeth

Laugeson

, PsyD

Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Founder and Director, UCLA PEERS® Clinic

Biography

Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson is a licensed clinical psychologist and an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Dr. Laugeson is the Founder and Director of the UCLA PEERS® Clinic, which is an outpatient hospital-based program providing parent-assisted social skills training for preschoolers, adolescents and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other social impairments. She also serves as the Training Director for the UCLA Tarjan Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD).

Dr. Laugeson has been a principal investigator and collaborator on a number of studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigating social skills training for youth with developmental disabilities from preschool to early adulthood and is the co-developer of an evidence-based social skills intervention for teens and young adults known as PEERS®. She was the two-time recipient of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the NIH from 2004-2007, recipient of the Semel Scholar Award for Junior Faculty Career Development in 2008, and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Pepperdine University in 2010. Dr. Laugeson has presented her research at international conferences throughout the world including the U.S., Canada, England, Italy, Australia, and Finland. Her groundbreaking work has been featured on national and international media outlets such as People Magazine, USA Today, the LA Times, New York Times, Washington Post, CBS, NBC, and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.

Education

1998 – California State University, Long Beach, Bachelor of Arts, Psychology
2000 – Pepperdine University, Master of Arts, Clinical Psychology
2004 – Pepperdine University, Doctor of Psychology, Clinical Psychology

Research & clinical interests

Dr. Laugeson has been a principal investigator and collaborator on a number of nationally funded studies investigating social skills training for youth with social difficulties from preschool to early adulthood and is the co-developer of an evidence-based social skills intervention known as PEERS®. Since 2010, she has authored three books related to social skills training including,The Science of Making Friends: Helping Socially Challenged Teens and Young Adults, Social Skills for Teenagers with Developmental and Autism Spectrum Disorders: The PEERS Treatment Manual,and The PEERS Curriculum for School-Based Professionals: Social Skills Training for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Having trained thousands of mental health professionals, educators, and families in the PEERS method, Dr. Laugeson is dedicated to developing and testing evidence-based treatments to improve social skills across the lifespan, and disseminating these empirically supported programs across the globe.

Roles within the division/Fellowship

Training Director, UCLA Tarjan Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD)
Faculty, UCLA Center for Autism Research & Treatment(CART)
Clinical and research mentor
Lectures on topics related to evidence-based social skills interventions for preschoolers, adolescents and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other social impairments