Staci Gruber, PhD

Dr. Staci Gruber received her PhD from Tufts University, and is currently an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core at McLean Hospital.

Over the last several decades, her research has focused on the application of neurocognitive models and brain imaging to characterize risk factors for substance abuse and psychiatric conditions. Specifically, she has extensively researched the impact of recreational cannabis use on the brain using neurocognitive measures, clinical assessments, and brain imaging techniques.

Given inherent differences between recreational and medical cannabis use, Dr. Gruber founded the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) program, designed to clarify the specific effects of medical cannabis use through observational, longitudinal, and survey studies, as well as innovative clinical trials.

Recently, Dr. Gruber launched the Women’s Health Initiative at MIND (WHIM), the first cannabis-focused program designed specifically to address women’s health and disorders that disproportionately affect women as well as some transgender and nonbinary individuals.