Beth Kennard

Beth Kennard is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She previously served as Program Director of the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at UT Southwestern from 2009 to 2023, training over 200 clinical psychologists. Her expertise focuses on pediatric depression and suicide prevention, including multi-site treatment studies and CBT intervention development. She leads a suicide prevention program at Children’s Health (since 2014), which has treated over 2,000 youth and families, and is co-site lead for the Youth Depression & Suicide Research Network within the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium, funded by the state legislature. Recent work explores social media’s impact on mental health outcomes in clinical populations.

Dr. Kennard’s research emphasizes evidence-based interventions for suicidal adolescents, including smartphone app-supported inpatient interventions (ASAP) and community mental health adaptations. She has led NIH-funded studies on relapse prevention in pediatric depression and currently directs projects assessing post-hospitalization suicide prevention strategies. Her work bridges clinical practice and public health, aiming to improve mental health care delivery systems and outcomes for youth.

Her professional contributions include developing CBT treatment manuals for adolescent depression and serving as principal investigator (PI) on grants from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and state-funded consortia. She collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to address gaps in child mental health services through research, training, and policy advocacy.