Catherine Sebastian
Cat is Head of Evidence for Mental Health at Wellcome.
Cat leads the Evidence team. Her role is to ensure we find and fund the research most likely to make a difference in preventing and treating mental health problems.
Cat is Head of Evidence for Mental Health at Wellcome. She leads a team to find and fund research that is most likely to make a difference in mental health. The team is particularly focused on understanding the mechanisms underpinning symptoms of and interventions for anxiety, depression and psychosis, so as to better understand ‘what works for whom and why?’.
Cat started at Wellcome in 2020 as Evidence Lead for the Mental Health priority area, focusing on anxiety and depression in adolescence. Prior to that she was a Reader (Associate Professor) in the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway University of London where she directed the Emotion, Development & Brain Lab. She retains an Honorary Research Fellowship. Her research focused on emotional and social processing underpinning adolescent mental health. She completed a PhD in developmental cognitive neuroscience in 2009, followed by postdoctoral work in developmental psychopathology at University College London.