Katherine A. Loveland, PhD

Biography

Katherine A. Loveland, PhD, is the Landmark Charities Professor of Autism Research and Treatment and is founding director of the Lifespan Autism program in the Louis A. Faillace, MD Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She is the outgoing Training Director of the UTHealth Houston Doctoral Psychology Internship Program and the current Program Director for the UTHealth School of Behavioral Sciences Clinical Psychology PhD program.

Dr. Loveland is an internationally known researcher specializing in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). She is best known for her work on social-emotional development and the neuropsychology of ASD. Her current research focuses on application of new methods and technologies to the treatment of mental illness in ASD and cross-cultural influences affecting parenting stress in mothers of children with ASD.

Her clinical specialty is ASD in  adults and adolescents, particularly those with co-occurring mental health conditions. Her clinic is among the few in the U.S. that focuses on serving  adults on the autism spectrum who do not have intellectual disability, particularly those who were previously undiagnosed.

Dr. Loveland received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville in 1975 and her doctorate in Psychology from Cornell University in 1980. After teaching on the faculty of Rice University and researching autism at the Texas Research Institute of Mental Sciences, she joined The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston faculty in 1985 and retired September, 2025.