Biography

Susan Y. Bookheimer, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is a Distinguished Professor, Emeritus (on Recall), Semel Institute, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciencesa. 

I have been a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA for 33 years, my only position since completing my post-doctoral fellowship at the NIH in 1993. I was extremely fortunate to be working at the NIH at a time that a new technology, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was first developed, and had the privilege of helping set up an fMRI research and ultimately, clinical program at UCLA. In my work here I helped train budding clinical neuropsychologists and future academics, and did research on lifespan brain development and disorders of language, memory and social communication. My greatest joy has been to help young students develop into great scientists and clinicians, and to help build excellence in our department and university by creating and managing new programs. Now that I am semi-retired (working only 40 hours a week!!), I have extra time to play music with my husband Spencer and our Americana genre band, Mudslide Mojo, aka Spencer Thornton and the Mudsliders, make pottery, travel, and spend quality time with my children and grandchildren.