Leigh Ridings

Leigh Ridings, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Nursing and Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She holds affiliations with the College of Nursing and the Department of Nursing at MUSC, and serves as Associate Director of Child and Family Services for the Trauma Resilience and Recovery Program (TRRP). Her research focuses on developing technology-based solutions to improve mental health access for trauma-impacted families, with a particular emphasis on pediatric traumatic injury settings.

Dr. Ridings earned her BS in Psychology from the University of Kentucky and her PhD in Clinical Child Psychology from Oklahoma State University. She completed her clinical internship at Baylor College of Medicine and a postdoctoral fellowship at MUSC. Her work spans federally funded projects addressing mental health service gaps, including a K23 grant from NICHD to develop technology-enhanced interventions for caregivers of injured children.

Her research emphasizes mixed-methods approaches to evaluate mental health interventions in trauma centers, emergency departments, and community agencies. Key themes include digital mental health tools, service implementation barriers, and stakeholder needs assessments. Recent studies have explored telehealth adaptations during the pandemic, racial disparities in mental health engagement, and caregiver-child emotional recovery post-injury.

Dr. Ridings has published extensively on trauma-related mental health, including articles on pediatric trauma centers' behavioral health practices, text messaging systems for symptom monitoring, and integrative reviews of bereavement experiences in children. She collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to translate evidence-based practices into scalable solutions for real-world healthcare settings.