Karen Bearss, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science

More about Dr. Bearss

Karen Bearss is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. She serves as Clinical Director of the Seattle Children’s Autism Center where she also directs the RUBI Clinic. Dr. Bearss earned her B.S. in Psychology as well as her M.S. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Florida. She is a leading expert in the development, testing, and implementation of caregiver-mediated interventions for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and co-occurring challenging behaviors. Dr. Bearss was a Co-Investigator on the multi-site NIMH collaborative study of parent training for disruptive behaviors in youth with ASD and was designated as the first author on the primary paper from this trial, published in JAMA. She also is the first author of the RUBI Parent Training Manual, now available as part of the Programs that Work series at Oxford University Press. Dr. Bearss also serves as a scientific advisor to Attend Behavior.

As part of her involvement in the ALACRITY Center, Dr. Bearss is partnering with Dr. Jill Locke in the redesign of the RUBI intervention for use by educators in school settings. The newly designed intervention, RUBI in Educational Settings or RUBIES, is currently being evaluated in an NIMH R34 pilot randomized effectiveness trial. Redesign of RUBIES implementation strategies will be the focus of Drs. Bearss and Locke’s new R34, funded via the new ALACRITY Center grant.