Emily C. Dossett, MD

Emily C. Dossett, MD, MTS, is a reproductive psychiatrist and the founder and director of the Reproductive Mental Health Program at LAC+USC Medical Center, a novel services approach that integrates obstetrics, psychiatry, and pediatrics into a collaborative care model for mood and anxiety disorders across the perinatal spectrum. In addition, as Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Dr. Dossett teaches medical students, residents, and fellows about reproductive mental health disorders. She is a frequent recipient of the “Teacher of the Year” Award. Dr. Dossett’s research interests include access to health care for perinatal women with mental health disorders, and her recent funders include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the California Health Care Foundation.

Dr. Dossett also served from 2019-2021 as the first Director of Women’s Health and Reproductive Psychiatry for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. In this role, she worked to identify women’s mental health needs across the country’s largest public mental health system and to connect and create initiatives aimed at addressing them. Her clinical work took place at the Women’s Community Reintegration Program, a county-wide, field-based program for recently incarcerated women of all ages with serious mental illness who are reintegrating.

Dr. Dossett is a frequent speaker on reproductive mental health issues at state, regional, and national clinical and policy conferences. She serves a member of numerous policy advisory groups, including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s Expert Group on Maternal Mental Health, the California Maternal Mental Health Task Force, the Institute for Medicaid Innovation, and the Mathematica Policy Group’s Perinatal Mental Health Advisory Board. She was also a member of the California State Task Force on Maternal Mental Health, convened by the California State Assembly in 2017.

Dr. Dossett obtained her undergraduate degree at Stanford University. After graduation, she served one year as an intern in health policy at the George Washington University’s Center for Health Policy Research. She then completed a Masters in Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School. She returned to California, where she attended medical school at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her internship and residency in adult psychiatry were also completed, respectively, at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute.

• Reproductive psychiatric advance directives: promoting autonomy for perinatal people with serious mental illness diagnoses Arch Womens Ment Health. 2025 Jun; 28(3):1-6. . View in PubMed
• Perinatal Mental Health: The Need For Broader Understanding And Policies That Meet The Challenges Health Aff (Millwood). 2024 04; 43(4):462-469. . View in PubMed
• Social Determinants Among Pregnant Clients With Perinatal Depression, Anxiety, Or Serious Mental Illness Health Aff (Millwood). 2024 04; 43(4):532-539. . View in PubMed
• Addressing Pregnancy And Parenting In Mental Health Care: Perspectives Of Women With Serious Mental Illness Health Aff (Millwood). 2024 04; 43(4):582-589. . View in PubMed
• Perinatal Psychopharmacology: Innovative Approaches to Care Delivery Clin Obstet Gynecol. 2024 03 01; 67(1):186-199. . View in PubMed
• Acceptability of reproductive goals assessment in public mental health care Health Serv Res. 2023 04; 58(2):510-520. . View in PubMed
• Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotic Medications in Pregnancy: A Review J Acad Consult Liaison Psychiatry. 2022 Jan-Feb; 63(1):53-60. . View in PubMed
• Addressing the Urgent Housing Needs of Vulnerable Women in the Era of COVID-19: The Los Angeles County Experience Psychiatr Serv. 2021 03 01; 72(3):349-352. . View in PubMed
• Perinatal Mental Health in Community Psychiatry: A Reproductive Psychiatry eConsult Pilot Project Psychiatr Serv. 2019 11 01; 70(11):1075-1076. . View in PubMed
• Creating a Culture of Health for Perinatal Women with Mental Illness: A Community-Engaged Policy and Research Initiative Prog Community Health Partnersh. 2018; 12(2):135-144. . View in PubMed
• No Perfect Choice JAMA. 2017 Jul 04; 318(1):29-30. . View in PubMed
• A rock and a hard place: The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor dilemmas in addressing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders J Neonatal Perinatal Med. 2016; 9(1):1-5. . View in PubMed
• The incidence of depression by fertility status in overweight and obese Latina women J Immigr Minor Health. 2012 Dec; 14(6):1040-4. . View in PubMed
• Antipsychotics leading to neuroleptic malignant syndrome in pregnancy Obstet Gynecol. 2012 Feb; 119(2 Pt 2):436-438. . View in PubMed
• Perinatal depression Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am. 2008 Sep; 35(3):419-34viii. . View in PubMed
• Lack of mania prophylaxis associated with lamotrigine monotherapy in manic-predominant bipolar I disorder J Clin Psychiatry. 2007 Jun; 68(6):973-4. . View in PubMed
• Obstacles and opportunities in providing mental health services through a faith-based network in Los Angeles Psychiatr Serv. 2005 Feb; 56(2):206-8. . View in PubMed

• Henwood, Benjamin
• Wenzel, Suzanne
• Unger, Jennifer
• Oh, Hans
• Brown, Hilary