Dr. Kearns received her PhD from the University of Rochester and completed her APA/PCSAS-accredited internship at the VA Boston Healthcare System, with rotations in General Mental Health, Trauma and Addictions Recovery, and Cognitive Processing Therapy. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Behavioral Science Division of the National Center for PTSD at the VA Boston Healthcare System, focusing on the intersection of trauma and suicide, integrating predictive analytics with clinical judgement for suicide prevention, and clinical trials with trauma-exposed active duty military personnel and veterans psychiatrically hospitalized for suicide.

Currently, Dr. Kearns is an Investigator in the Behavioral Science Division of the National Center for PTSD and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the study and prevention of suicide, the co-occurrence of trauma and suicide, and intervention personalization and development through clinical trials. Her work emphasizes precision approaches to suicide prevention (including the suicide-trauma relation), leveraging electronic health record data, use of novel observational methods (e.g., ecological momentary assessment, wrist actigraphy), and implementation science to personalize and improve clinical care.

Her primary areas of clinical expertise include evidence-based treatments for PTSD, emotional disorders (e.g., OCD, anxiety, depression), and working with individuals at high-risk for suicide (e.g., psychiatrically hospitalized). She treats patients in the PTSD Clinic at the VA Boston Healthcare System.