Diana Perkins

Diana Perkins is an American professor at the University of North Carolina's (UNC) School of Medicine where she teaches psychiatry. She is a fellow of Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry and the Medical Director of Outreach and Support Intervention Services at UNC Hospitals and the UNC–Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Perkins’ primary research interests include early identification and treatment of schizophrenia, emphasizing treatment of the prodromal period and early intervention of the first episode of schizophrenia. She is noted for publishing a study that demonstrated that using a polygenic risk score (PRS) based on data from genome-wide association studies improved the psychosis risk prediction in persons meeting clinical high-risk criteria.
Education.
Perkins' undergraduate work was completed at the University of Maryland in Psychology and Biochemistry; she also received her Doctor of Medicine there. She completed a graduate degree in Epidemiology from UNC.