Faculty Profile
Kelly Watson, Ph.D.
Dr. Kelly Watson applied early-decision to attend Vanderbilt as an undergrad and has been part of the campus ever since. As a clinician scientist, her current work focuses on social cognition in adolescents with Tourette Syndrome and youth at risk for Huntington’s disease. In her free time, you’ll find her with her family walking their goldendoodle or cheering on Nashville SC and Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball.
Tell us about your background and how your path led to Vanderbilt.
I grew up in Central Minnesota, and my family moved to Nashville when I was in high school. When I got to Nashville, I knew Vanderbilt was where I wanted to go to college. My parents didn’t go to college and they always placed a high value on education. I applied early decision to Vanderbilt, and have been here ever since! I did my undergrad in psychology, and stayed to do my Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a focus on childhood and adolescence. I did leave for a year to do my clinical internship at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Then I came back to Vanderbilt for my post-doc training. After that I balanced research in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University with providing clinical care in a private practice for four years. In 2022 I transitioned into my current role in the neurology department. In all, I’ve been at Vanderbilt for about 20 years!
Can you describe your current role and how that came about for you?
I mainly do research, plus I spend one day a week in the Tourette Syndrome [TS] clinic providing a specialized behavioral therapy for tics called Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT). When I was previously working in the psychology department, I was part of a research collaboration with Dr. Daniel Claassen. I’ve always loved research and I knew that was the path I wanted to pursue, and I ultimately wanted to develop my own research program. Dr. Claassen connected me to Dr. David Isaacs, who is the director of the Tourette Syndrome Center of Excellence at VUMC. Through him I got involved with TS and became trained in CBIT. Now I’m working to develop my own research program in TS.
What does a typical week look like for you, as a researcher and clinician?
I spend one day a week in the clinic providing therapy for children, adolescents, and adults with tic disorders. The rest of my week is spent on research in TS and Huntington’s disease. I have a great group of mentors that I meet with regularly, but one of the things I’ve been enjoying about my new role is that I'm starting to mentor others. Part of my week is spent working with students and I’m really enjoying that.
What do you consider a highlight of your job?
One of the things I like about my current position is that I'm clinically working with the same individuals who I'm doing research with. In the past, my research and my clinical experiences were very separate. Now, my research informs my clinical work and vice versa, so I’ve been happy to work with the same population for both aspects of my work. Also working as part of an interdisciplinary team that includes occupational therapists, neurologists, social workers, pharmacists, etc. I’m learning so much, and it’s great to be working with a team like that.
Tell us about your research interests. What provoked your interest in these topics?
It’s really been through collaborations that I’ve found my interests. My grad student mentor was Dr. Bruce Compas, who collaborated with Dr. Claassen on Huntington’s disease research. I am part of an effort to develop a family-focused psychosocial program to help families cope with and communicate about Huntington’s disease. More recently, Dr. Claassen introduced me to Dr. Isaacs, who was looking for a psychologist for the Tourette Center of Excellence. TS was new to me, but it was clear that many benefit from psychological care.
My research in TS focuses on the social problems that many people experience. CBIT is great, but it doesn’t address social problems directly. In my research, I’m looking for risk factors besides tics that might contribute to social difficulties—like social cognition—to see if those skills are different for people with TS. If there are differences, my hope is to develop programs to help improve those skills, which may ultimately reduce social problems and improve quality of life.
Who have been some important mentors for you along the way?
There have been many great mentors along the way–it would be hard to mention them all! Two who stand out to me are Dr. Compas and Dr. Claassen. I first worked with Dr. Compas as an undergrad; he sparked my interest in psychology and particularly in research. He introduced me to Dr. Claassen, who is my current mentor. He has offered great guidance and resources, teaching me what it means to be a clinician scientist.
What are some of your long-term goals?
Right now, my primary focus is establishing an independent research program. This is new but very exciting. I have a supportive group of mentors who are guiding me through the process. A lot of my grad school training was the development and testing of psychosocial intervention programs. I want to build programs of research in TS and Huntington’s disease really focusing on intervention research–creating programs, testing them, and hopefully finding that they work.
How do you like to spend your free time?
I have an 11-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son. Family certainly keeps us busy. My husband and I met in high school here in Nashville, and both of our families live in town. Having been here so long we have a great group of friends, so we spend lots of time with family and friends. We have a goldendoodle we like to take on walks, and we like to spend time in the neighborhood pool or doing yard work. We have season tickets to Nashville SC games, and in winter we have season tickets to Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball.
