Kelly Beck, Ph.D., LPC, CRC

Kelly Beck is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and a Clinical and Translational Science Scholar (KL2 Scholar) with the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Clinical Research Education. She is a rehabilitation scientist, clinical educator, and Licensed Professional Counselor that works clinically with individuals with disabilities across the lifespan. Dr. Beck’s research focuses on collaboratively developing and implementing community-based services that improve mental health and quality of life among autistic people.

Beck utilizes a community-based participatory approach to her research and founded the Pittsburgh Adult Autism Research Community Collaborative (PAARCC). PAARCC is a group of 8 adults (i.e., autistic adults, parents of autistic children, and community allies) that meet monthly with Pitt autism researchers. Her other projects involve interviewing autistic individuals and their allies for their perspectives on health service needs and evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness of mental health interventions for autistic people. Beck is the Core-Lead of the Dissemination and Partnership Core of the Pittsburgh Autism Center for Excellence (ACE). The Dissemination and Partnership Core will work with PAARCC to make sure that science is meaningful to the autistic community by providing oversight, integrating valuable lived experience in the ACE, and provide opportunities for students and early career researchers to advance their scientific careers.

Beck is a co-developer of the Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement Program (EASE), a mindfulness-based intervention for adolescents and young adults on the autism spectrum. EASE utilizes a combination of mindfulness practices and cognitive behavioral therapy in an individual setting to improve emotion regulation impairment. Beck was recently awarded a competitive career development award (KL2) to build upon EASE to design and implement mental health interventions for autistic adults. Beck’s clinical specialty is teaching mindfulness-based interventions to people on the autism spectrum and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. She is the lead program developer, evaluator, and clinical supervisor for the Cognitive Skills Enhancement Program (CSEP), a transition program for young adults (ages 18-28) with autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. She is also a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher and has over 11 years of experience with mindfulness meditation. Beck is an MBSR teacher at the UPMC Center for Integrative Medicine.

Kelly spends most of her time outside of work with her 'pack' - including her children (2 and 5), two labrador retreivers, and her husband.  She loves swimming, reading, traveling to see live music, and spending time outside with her family.