Dr. Kathleen Pike is Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). She serves as Executive Director and Scientific Co-Director of the Global Mental Health Program and is Associate Director of the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program. She is also Senior Supervising Psychologist in the Center for Eating Disorders at CUMC.
Dr. Pike earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees at Johns Hopkins University and her doctoral degree at Yale University. Upon completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University, she joined the faculty at Columbia University in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology where she also served as Clinical Co-Director of the Eating Disorders Research Unit.
Throughout her career, Dr. Pike has been involved with global initiatives around education and women’s health and has held academic and administrative university appointments in Japan where she served as Professor of Psychology and Assistant Dean for Research at Temple University Japan and Visiting Professor at Keio University. Dr. Pike is recognized internationally for her work in the area of risk factors and evidence based treatment for eating disorders. She developed an internationally disseminated relapse prevention treatment program of cognitive behavioral therapy for anorexia nervosa, and she conducts clinical training and education globally focused on expanding clinical and research capacity for evidence-based treatment in low-resourced communities. She currently leads the Global Mental Health Program at Columbia – World Health Organization Collaboration that has the primary aim of contributing to the research program of Clinical Field Trials for the development of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) – 11.
Dr. Pike has been involved in health policy beginning at Yale where she served as a Fellow in the Bush Center for Child Development and Social Policy. During her tenure in Japan, she worked closely with the lead parliament member to consult on policies impacting mental health care delivery and opportunities to advance specialty care for particular mental health conditions. As Associate Director of the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program, Dr. Pike is integrally involved in the development of policy placements and ongoing mentorship for Fellows. She is also plays a lead role in recruitment of fellows and program development. She is currently working on the development of a pilot program to extend the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program to include a global policy option.
Dr. Pike served as co-chair of training and education for the Academy for Eating Disorders and currently serves on the editorial board for the International Journal of Eating Disorders, is Associate Editor for Advances in Eating Disorders: Theory, Research, and Practice and Associate Editor for Journal of Eating Disorders. She is the founding chair of the US-TELL Foundation and served as vice-chair of the board of directors for TELL in Japan, the only mental health center dedicated to serving the needs of the international community in Tokyo. She also served vice-chair of the Support Foundation Board of Directors for Asian University for Women and played a leadership role in the founding of Asian University for Women, a residential, liberal arts college hat draws students from across south and Southeast Asia.
Dr. Pike has maintained an ongoing research program supported by grants and awards from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), Fulbright Foundation, Takeda Foundation, Japan National Institute of Health, Keio University, Columbia University, Temple University, the Japan Foundation, and private philanthropic funding. She has published over 85 articles and book chapters on eating disorders, culture and psychopathology and global mental health and has authored and presented more than 100 workshops, invited lectures, papers, and poster presentations.