Dr. Anna MacKinnon is a clinical psychologist, Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Addiction at the University of Montreal, and researcher in perinatal mental health and early child development at the CHU Sainte Justine Azrieli Research Centre. Her work aims to identify risk and protective factors to inform the development of innovative interventions that promote resilience and prevent mental health problems. During her training, she worked with large cohort studies to examine multilevel social (e.g., neighborhood) and biological (e.g., epigenetic) determinants of mental health and social-emotional functioning. She also worked on several clinical trials of novel telehealth and App-based programs that targeted mental health during pregnancy and the postpartum as well as emotion-focused parenting strategies.

Her program of research aims to utilize technology (e.g., digital solutions) and a patient oriented approach (e.g., engaging multiple stakeholders including persons with lived experience, equity-seeking groups, health care providers) to co-create and implement scalable and tailorable evidenced-based interventions that address barriers to access and improve care for families. She hopes to help establish a streamlined pathway to care that includes standardized perinatal mental health screening, needs matched service referrals, and follow-up through the early childhood.