2025 Stanford PMH Symposium_Revolutionizing Precision Approaches to Cognitive and Mental Health

5th Annual Precision Mental Health Symposium | Bridging Psychiatry, Neuroscience & AI
September 26, 2025 | Stanford University

Revolutionizing Precision Approaches to Cognitive and Mental Health: A Role for AI
Panel Chair: Ruth O’Hara, PhD
Ruth O’Hara, PhD | Clinical Transformation in Cognitive & Mental Health: A Roadmap to Translation – Unified by Multimodal AI
Leanne Williams, PhD | Circuit Biotypes at Scale: Making Precision Psychiatry Personal
Olu Ajilore, MD, PhD | ‘Network Psychiatry’: Connecting the Dots Between Mood & Cognition
Discussion

For more information, visit: https://med.stanford.edu/pmhw

Bio:

Ruth O’Hara, PhD, is the Lowell W. and Josephine Q. Berry Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where she serves as Senior Associate Dean for Research and Director of Spectrum, Stanford’s Center for Clinical and Translational Research. A clinical neuroscientist, Dr. O’Hara leads research on how cognitive processing deficits contribute to affective symptoms and treatment resistance across psychiatric disorders. Her work integrates neuroimaging, sleep physiology, and behavioral assays to define and target brain-based cognitive dysfunction. She also investigates aging and neurodegeneration, identifying biomarkers that predict psychiatric and cognitive decline in older adults. Dr. O’Hara holds leadership roles with the VA MIRECC and the Stanford/VA Alzheimer’s Disease Center and has contributed to national research training programs through the VA and NIMH. She is a dedicated mentor and continues to shape the future of psychiatric neuroscience through discovery, leadership, and translational impact.

Leanne Williams, PhD, is the Stanford Vincent V.C. Woo Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health. She pioneered neuroscience-based ‘biotypes’ of depression and anxiety, integrating neuroimaging and clinical measures to guide individualized treatment. She created the first clinical platform to identify biotypes in real time, enabling precision selection of medications, behavioral therapies, neuromodulation, and emerging therapeutics. Using advanced computational methods, her team continues to refine and scale this approach. Author of the first textbook on Precision Psychiatry (APA) and over 400 publications, she is internationally recognized for translating neuroscience into mental health care.

Olu Ajilore, MD, PhD, is the Center for Depression and Resilience Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he also serves as Associate Head for Faculty Development. A physician-scientist, Dr. Ajilore directs an interdisciplinary research program that applies multimodal neuroimaging, computational modeling, and digital biomarkers to better understand and treat mood disorders—particularly in the context of aging and medical comorbidities. His lab studies large-scale brain network dysfunction in major depression, with the goal of identifying personalized targets for intervention. He also directs the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, the Clinical Research Core of the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science, and the Adult Neuroscience Research Track for psychiatry residents. Nationally, Dr. Ajilore serves on the National Advisory Mental Health Council at NIMH, the Board of the National Network of Depression Centers, and scientific committees for ACNP, helping to shape the future of precision psychiatry through research, training, and advocacy.