Eliza Congdon, PhD, is the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge’s Project Director of human research and a member of the DGC Executive Committee. She oversees large-scale, interdisciplinary research efforts to further scientific understanding of depression’s causes and trajectories, one of three DGC research objectives. Congdon plays a particularly pivotal role as operations lead of the DGC’s Digital Mental Health Study conducted in collaboration with Apple, a first-of-its-kind study involving more than 3,000 participants with the goal of illuminating the relationship between objective measures (e.g., sleep, heart rate) and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Congdon hires, trains and supervises the teams of individuals needed to support the research operations infrastructure of the DGC, and liaises with groups across campus to ensure regulatory requirements are met, data security requirements are met, and projects are conducted within scope and on time.

With a broad background in biopsychology, Congdon has extensive research and leadership experience in neuroimaging, genetic and gene-expression studies to investigate the relationships between the neurobiological and behavioral processes that impact mental health. Her previous projects include international genome-wide association studies, longitudinal analyses of the relationship between temperament and mental health outcomes, and the authoring of multiple neuroimaging studies. 

In addition to her role with the DGC, Congdon is an associate adjunct professor in the UCLA Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics and the UCLA department of psychiatry.