Addiction Psychiatrist & Assistant Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco

Dr. Katherine Pier is an Addiction Psychiatrist & Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at University of California-San Francisco. She additionally serves on the Junior Leadership Council of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to accelerate cures for various diseases through stem cell research. She has a strong background in psychotherapy, which informs her approach to patients. She primarily works with patients with substance use disorders to mitigate the harm of their use and help them achieve their goals in moderating or abstaining from substances while building more meaningful and fulfilling lives. Additionally, she also treat patients with co-occurring substance and psychiatric disorders, including mood and anxiety disorders, trauma-related disorders, learning, sleep and psychotic disorders.

Katherine has been committed to providing creative outlets to homeless and economically impoverished populations from a young age. Through her work with Grand Central’s Coalition for the Homeless, she edited a street newspaper written and vended by the homeless and collaborated with other street newspapers internationally to launch the first ever Homeless World Cup in Sweden.

Katherine graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 where she received her B.A. in psychology. She later attended the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and graduated with a medical degree in 2013. She lived for a year and a half in Argentina where she became involved in providing early psychological interventions to children transitioning from an orphanage to foster care. She has conducted research on the use of Ketamine in the treatment of major depression and is interested in novel approaches to the treatment of refractory depression. She is involved in research on the prevalence of Body Dysmorphic Disorder in cosmetic practices. Katherine completed her Psychiatry Residency training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, during which she gained experience in geriatric, child and women’s mental health. She completed her Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship from UCSF.