Kathryn Emerick, MD

APAL’s Co-Director Dr. Kathryn Emerick is a perinatal psychiatrist who graduated from the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson Department of Psychiatry residency program, where she studied under APAL’s Director Dr. Kalia in the perinatal psychiatry education track.

Dr. Emerick is passionate about women’s mental health and finds working with perinatal patients extremely rewarding. She is also passionate about educating residents and her patients regarding the concerns that are unique to people who are in the stages of pre-, during, and perinatal/post-pregnancy.

Dr. Emerick has worked with numerous patients throughout her career, and many through multiple pregnancies. She finds her work in perinatal psychiatry professionally satisfying due to her motivated patients and the fact that many of the psychiatric concerns in the perinatal stage – such as postpartum depression and postpartum rage – are treatable.

She is thrilled for the launch of APAL and the opportunity to give Arizona’s healthcare providers the tools they need to treat their perinatal patients, to end the shame and stigma surrounding perinatal people’s mental health struggles and help providers to understand how psychiatric medications work during pregnancy.