About the Talk:

Discover how AI is transforming mental health care—and what that means for you and your community. Hosted by Dr. Declan Grabb, a Safety Systems researcher at OpenAI, this expert panel unites clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, and mental health leaders to explore AI-assisted clinical operations, the integration of large language models into therapist workflows and ethical challenges. This session ends with a live Q&A and 1:1 networking session, giving Forum members a chance to directly engage with the panel and the community. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to connect further during our virtual networking session—please register separately here.

About the Speakers:

Declan Grabb, Member of Research Staff @ OpenAI

Declan Grabb is a member of the Safety Systems team at OpenAI, with a background in forensic psychiatry and AI research at Stanford. His work centers on the mental health impacts of large language models (LLMs), particularly on youth and the LGBTQ+ community. Before joining OpenAI, Declan was an active Forum member who supported OpenAI’s preparedness efforts by evaluating frontier models. He has collaborated with Common Sense Media to help parents understand the role of AI companions in young people’s lives and has published award-winning research on identifying mental health indicators in language models. Across his work, Declan aims to integrate clinical expertise with AI to improve safety and expand access to mental health care. Here are some of his published work and accomplishments:

1. Parents' Ultimate Guide to AI Companions and Relationships
2. pSAE-chiatry: Utilizing Sparse Autoencoders to Uncover Mental-Health-Related Features in Language Models
3. Risks from Language Models for Automated Mental Healthcare: Ethics and Structure for Implementation which led him to win the first, inaugural O’Leary Award for Innovation in Psychiatry

Dr. Nick Obradovich, Chief Scientist for Environmental Mental Health, Laureate Institute for Brain Research.

Nick Obradovich is a computational behavioral scientist focused on how environmental and technological factors influence human behavior and mental health. He serves as Chief Scientist for Environmental Mental Health at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research and holds affiliations with the University of Tulsa and MIT. His past roles include leadership positions at Project Regeneration, the Max Planck Society, and the MIT Media Lab. Nick’s research—published in Nature, The Lancet, and PNAS—spans climate impacts, AI bias, and media manipulation. He earned his PhD from UC San Diego and completed postdoctoral work at Harvard, with support from the NSF, EPA, and OpenAI. Read more about Nick on his personal website here.

Dr. Martin Paulus, Scientific Director & President @ Laureate Institute for Brain Research.

Dr. Martin Paulus is the Scientific Director and President of the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR) in Tulsa, OK. A psychiatrist and neuroscientist, he has published over 300 papers and has been continuously funded by federal grants since 1997. He is a Principal Investigator on major NIH studies, including the ABCD study and the Tulsa-based T-1000 project, which aims to identify biological predictors of mental health outcomes. Dr. Paulus previously held faculty and clinical roles at UC San Diego and the VA San Diego, and his work focuses on brain function, behavior, and mental health across development. Read more about his work here. 

Dr. Olusola Ajilore, Professor of Psychiatry @ University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Olusola Ajilore is the Center for Depression and Resilience Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Illinois-Chicago. His research combines neuroimaging, digital biomarkers, and AI to improve diagnosis and treatment of depression, anxiety, and related disorders. His lab focuses on brain connectivity and computational methods to uncover patient-specific targets for intervention. A Harvard graduate, Dr. Ajilore earned his MD/PhD at Stanford studying stress and the brain, and completed a research-track residency at UCLA. He now leads the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program and serves as Associate Head for Faculty Development, advancing precision approaches in neuropsychiatric care. Read more about him here.

Dr. Roy Perlis, Vice Chair for Research (Psychiatry) & Director, Center for Quantitative Health @ Massachusetts General - Brigham

Dr. Roy Perlis is Vice Chair for Research in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General - Brigham, Director of the Center for Quantitative Health, and Professor at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on identifying biomarkers to predict treatment response in psychiatric disorders, combining patient-derived cellular models with machine learning applied to clinical data. Dr. Perlis has published over 400 papers, including groundbreaking work on depression, schizophrenia, and suicide risk, and has received major funding from NIH and NSF. He also serves as Editor in Chief at JAMA+ AI. Read more about him here.

Dr. Karthik V. Sarma, Psychiatrist & Investigator, AI in Mental Health Research Group @ UCSF; Co-Founder & CTO @ SimX

Dr. Karthik V Sarma is a psychiatrist at UCSF Health and an investigator at the UCSF AI in Mental Health Research Group; he is also co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at SimX. At UCSF, his research focuses on using AI—particularly large language models—for behavioral health, psychiatric reasoning, and clinical care. He has published extensively at the intersection of AI and clinical informatics. At SimX, he leads technology strategy, including the development of industry leading LLM-driven medical simulations. Dr. Sarma is also heavily involved in policy and is a seated representative in the AMA House of Delegates, the APA Assembly, and the CMA Council on Legislation; he has previously served on the Board of Trustees of the AMA and the CMA. Read more about him here. 

Dr. Betsy Stade, Clinical Psychologist & Research Scientist @ Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI

Dr. Elizabeth Stade is a computational clinical psychologist and research scientist at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, where she works in the Computational Psychology and Well-Being Lab and the FAST (Fidelity, Adaptation, Sustainability, and Training) Lab. Her research focuses on using large language models to enhance evidence-based therapies, streamline clinician training, and analyze patient language. She completed her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in the Boundaries of Anxiety and Depression Lab and is a member of the World Well-Being Project. Dr. Stade is trained in multiple evidence-based treatments for mood, anxiety, OCD, and trauma-related disorders. Read more about her here.