Mariana Aokalani, M.D., Psy.D. (née Cerqueira), joined the Developing Brain Institute (DBI) in September 2024 as a T32 Research Postdoctoral Fellow. Before her role at DBI, she earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology, specializing in perinatal, infant, and early childhood mental health, as well as caregivers’ substance use disorders. During her studies, she participated in the Colorado OUD/SUD Training (COST) program, which aims to address the needs of low-income individuals struggling with opioid use disorder in Colorado.

Dr. Aokalani completed her predoctoral internship in the Early Childhood Mental Health track of the Multicultural Clinical Training Program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology from ISPA and received her medical degree from Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal.

Her research interests center on the mental health of infants with medical complexities, focusing on enhancing parent-child relationships, adapting caregiver-infant support groups for those with ICU infants, and addressing perinatal mental health for caregivers of medically fragile infants. Currently, Dr. Aokalani's postdoctoral research investigates the outcomes of mental health dyadic interventions for infants in NICU and CICU settings and their caregivers.