Shafali Jeste

Dr. Shafali Jeste is a behavioral child neurologist specializing in autism and neurodevelopmental disorders. At UCLA she is the Professor and Mattel Executive Endowed Chair of Pediatrics, Executive Medical Director of Pediatrics, and Executive Director of the UCLA Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute.

She completed her undergraduate degree at Yale, Medical school at Harvard Medical School, and pediatrics and pediatric neurology residency at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her research focuses on early detection, intervention and precision health in neurodevelopmental disorders, including directing the first randomized controlled trial of behavioral intervention for infants with a genetic form of autism, launching large scale clinical trial readiness efforts in genetic syndromes, serving as a co-PI of the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials and PI of the Infant Brain Imaging EEG and Eye tracking study. She also co-leads the ARIA IMPACT Network Clinical Coordinating Center. She has published over 160 peer-reviewed manuscripts with funding from NIH, the Department of Defense, and the Simons Foundation. She is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and the Child Neurology Society’s Martha Bridge Denckla Award.