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Caitlin Ridgewell, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers)

Research Fellow
Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Somerville, Massachusetts, United States

Caitlin Ridgewell, PhD, MPH is a Research Fellow in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a postdoctoral scholar in the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She earned her PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from Boston University and an MPH in Epidemiology from Vanderbilt University. Before starting her current postdoctoral fellowship, she was a NIH T32 postdoctoral fellow at McLean Hospital. Her research investigates neurobiological mechanisms linking trauma, dissociation, and psychosis, with a particular focus on hormonal pathways, executive function, and symptom presentation.

Dr. Ridgewell is a principal investigator on a study funded by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS), and an NIH T32 fellowship. This study examines associations between progesterone metabolites, particularly allopregnanolone, and cognitive and clinical features in individuals with PTSD and dissociation and/or psychotic disorders. This project aims to identify biological mechanisms that may underlie dissociative responses to trauma and inform novel intervention targets.

Dr. Ridgewell’s research portfolio includes work on the interaction of trauma and psychosis, the neurocognitive effects of stress, and the use of noninvasive neuromodulation to modulate the stress response. She has published in journals including Psychological Trauma, Journal of Affective Disorders, Biological Psychiatry, and Neuromodulation, and her work has been presented at leading conferences such as the Society for Neuroscience, the Society for Research on Psychopathology, and SIRS.

Dr. Ridgewell has received national and international awards for her work, including the ISSTD Research and Education Fund Award (2025), the SIRS Research Fund Award (2023), and the NIH Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award (2023). Her work contributes to a growing body of translational research aimed at identifying neurobiological pathways that bridge trauma-related and psychosis-spectrum disorders.

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