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Biography

Dr. Karen Milligan is Lab Director of the Child & Family WISE (Wellness through Integrated Systems and Evaluation) lab and Full Professor in the Department of Psychology at 91看片网 (91看片网). Prior to joining the university in 2012, she worked as a child clinical psychologist and researcher in the children鈥檚 mental health and addiction treatment sectors. Dr. Milligan received her PhD in school and child clinical psychology from the University of Toronto and is a registered psychologist working with children, adolescents, adults, and families. 

Dr. Milligan conducts research, program development, evaluation, and implementation projects in partnership with community organizations, particularly those serving children, youth, and caregivers. Community-based participatory approaches are central to her work. 

Current research studies focus on:

1. Generative AI & Youth Mental Health: Development, validation, and evaluation of generative AI training tools to promote crisis responder skill and confidence, as well as the quality of crisis responder support and youth well-being. This includes exploration of text-based dyadic emotional communication and the effectiveness of single-session text conversation support. 
2. Caregiver Substance Use & Parenting: Pregnant and parenting people with problematic substance use and their children (aged 0鈥�6 years), with a focus on parenting, caregiver cognition, emotion regulation, and the intersecting roles of social and structural determinants of health on parenting and well-being. 
3. Mental Health Intervention and Service Engagement for Youth with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Youth mental health intervention, particularly for youth with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as learning disabilities, ADHD, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. 
4. Caregiver Mental Health and Service Engagement: Service engagement for youth with neurodevelopmental disorders and their families, with a focus on social and structural determinants of health and caregiver mental health. 

Selected Publications (*students)

Khan, N., Sheibani, N., Sequeira, L., Gauvreau, S.*, Palachi, A.*, Navid, A., Shearkhani, S., Ensan, F., Raman, P., and Milligan, K. (2026). Co-design of a configurable crisis conversation simulator for youth mental health responder training: A design-based implementation research study. Submitted to JMIR Formative Research.

Young, E., Green, L., Goldfarb, R., Jegathesan, T., Devarajah, S., Weyman, K., & Milligan, K. (2026). Caring for Children with Developmental and Behavioral Disorders: Impact of a Developmental Outreach Clinic Within a Primary Care Setting. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities : JPPID., 23(1).

Seward, M., Milligan, K., Sibalis, A.,* Wenban, H., & van Noordt, S. (2026). Mindfulness Training in Youth with ADHD鈥�+鈥塁omorbid Learning Disability Maintains Medial Frontal Cortex Function During Response Inhibition. Clinical EEG and neuroscience, 57(2), 103鈥�114.

Milligan, K., Ingram, V.,* Osminin, I., *& Daari, L.* (2024). Relative influence of cognitive and emotional impulsivity on dimensions of emotional availability in mothers with problematic substance use. Journal of Trauma, Child Custody & Child Development, 21(4), 436鈥�453.

Milligan, K., Tarasoff, L. A.,* Rodrigues, E. R.,* Iwajomo, T., Gomes, T., de Oliveira, C., Brown, H., & Urbanoski, K. A. (2023). Neonatal outcomes of pregnant women attending integrated and standard substance use treatment programs. Birth, 51(2), 284鈥�294.

Peak, J.,* Ingram, V.,* Urbanoski, K., & Milligan, K. (2022). Specifying the relations among PTSD symptom clusters and parenting stress in mothers engaged in substance use treatment. Substance Use & Misuse, 57(10), 1552鈥�1562.

Clinical Expertise and Teaching

Dr. Milligan received her PhD in School and Clinical Child psychology from the OISE/University of Toronto and is a registered psychologist working with children, adolescents, adults, and families. She teaches courses on supervision, consultation and program evaluation and child and adolescent treatment and regularly provides clinical supervision at the 91看片网 Psychology Training Clinic. She is currently the Child Clinical Training Coordinator for the 91看片网 Clinical Psychology Program.