Dr. Carbray holds her PhD (93) and Master of Science (88) degrees from Rush University, Chicago and her Bachelors of Science (87) degree from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. A Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Nursing at the University of Illinois Chicago, she has been on faculty at UIC since 1993. As faculty, Dr. Carbray teaches course content in psychopharmacology, mood disorders, and development and therapeutic interventions with children and adolescents for students across various multidisciplinary programs within the UIC community. As the Director of the Pediatric Mood Disorder Clinic, Dr. Carbray leads the clinical program and multidisciplinary training for the clinic, and is a nationally recognized clinical expert in the area of children and adolescents with mood disorders. Dr. Carbray has a national reputation of excellence in serving families of children with mood disorders, and was recognized by the UIC community in 2008 by receiving the Karen Gousman Excellence in Nursing Award, the 2008 American Psychiatric Nurses Association Best Practices in an Outpatient Program for Bipolar Disorder Award, In 2012 the UIC Inspire Award at the University of Illinois Chicago for outstanding examples of UICs core values, and in 2016 the APNA Distinguished Service Award for her service to her profession. Dr. Carbray has been training nurse practitioners at IJR since she started at UIC and in 2019 was awarded Preceptor of the Year by the Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Program at the UIC College of Nursing.
With a particular focus on helping families to manage their children with mood disorders, Dr. Carbray’s scholarly work has included programs of research that aims to better understand the psychopharmacology of mood disorders, neurobiology of mood disorders in youth, and improving family outcomes for childhood mood disorders. Her published contributions and presentations across disciplines in the field of pediatric bipolar disorder have shaped the understanding of pediatric bipolar illness and effective treatments for families affected early in life. Beyond her scholarly presentations Dr. Carbray has been an invited speaker for the executive team of the American Girl Company and has been interviewed on mental health and youth across print and social media including Seventeen magazine.
