Elysia Poggi Davis

Biography

Elysia Poggi Davis, Ph.D., is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver, where she has served since 2012. She also holds appointments as Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado, Denver, and Associate Researcher in Psychiatry & Human Behavior and Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine. Davis received her Ph.D. in Child Psychology with a minor in Affective Neuroscience from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in 2002.

Davis has established a research program examining how prenatal and early postnatal experiences shape child neurodevelopment and health outcomes. Her work focuses on maternal mental health during pregnancy, patterns of maternal caregiving behavior, and their effects on infant stress physiology, brain development, and risk for psychopathology. She has served as principal investigator or multiple principal investigator on numerous NIH-funded grants, including studies testing interventions to reduce prenatal maternal depression and examining mechanisms linking early life experiences to child cardiovascular and mental health outcomes. Davis has also been principal investigator on multiple NIH Silvio O. Conte Center projects investigating early life programming of mental illness.

Davis was an elected member of the Developmental Psychobiology Research Group Executive Committee and has served on NIH study sections, including the Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities study section. She has published over 170 peer-reviewed journal articles with an h-index of 62 and has mentored numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who have received individual NIH training awards. Her research employs cross-species approaches and randomized clinical trials to understand developmental mechanisms and inform prevention strategies for maternal and child health.

Education

• Ph.D. in Child Psychology with a minor in Affective Neuroscience, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2002
• B.A. in Psychology, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

Distinctions

• NICHD Global Health Initiative Panel Member, 2015-2017
• Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities NIH Study Section member, Center for Scientific Review, 2018
• Distinguished University Professor, University of Denver, 2023
• National Institute of Health Special Emphasis Panel, 2010
• Institute for Clinical and Translational Science Team Science Award, UC Irvine, 2018
• Science Leadership Conference, Enhancing the Nation's Health Through Psychological Science, hosted by the American Psychological Association, 2009
• Science Leadership Conference, Adventures in Advocacy: Training the Civic Scientist, hosted by the American Psychological Association, 2007
• PROF award, University of Denver, 2017