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Dr. Tanya Nguyen earned her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience from the University of Southern California and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (with an emphasis in Neuropsychology) from the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. She completed her clinical internship at the VA Palo Alto and her postdoctoral fellowship at the VA San Diego in the Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Centers (MIRECC), with a focus on neuropsychological assessment and clinical research. She then joined the clinical faculty in the UCSD School of Medicine, as Program Director of the Senior Behavioral Health (SBH) Intensive Outpatient Program and an attending neuropsychologist on the SBH inpatient unit. Her clinical expertise is in conducting neuropsychological evaluations to help determine causes of neurological or cognitive problems. Dr. Nguyen is actively involved in clinical research. She has been the PI on several NIH and national/local foundation grants. Broadly, her research aims to identify mechanisms cognitive and biological aging in serious mental illnesses. Her current work is focused on the gut-brain axis and understanding the relationship between the gut microbiome and brain/behavior, particularly as it pertains to accelerated aging in mental illness but also in healthy aging. Dr. Nguyen was awarded an NIMH K23 Career Development Award to investigate the role of inflammation and the gut microbiome in schizophrenia and how imbalance of the gut ecosystem can alter immune responses, leading to alterations to brain and behavioral function.