Randi Jeanne Cheatham-Johnson, PhD $$

Randi Cheatham-Johnson, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and works with children and families at Children’s Health℠. Dr. Cheatham-Johnson, who is also an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at UT Southwestern, says she is passionate about “empowering caregivers to support children’s healthy mental, emotional and behavioral development, regardless of their medical diagnosis.” In her role as a pediatric psychologist within the Heart Center, she evaluates and provides intervention services to neonates, infants, and children with congenital heart defects and their families. Evidence-based interventions, including infant mental health, promote developmental care, social-emotional development, caregiver-infant relationships, and family adjustment/coping.

Dr. Cheatham-Johnson earned her undergraduate degree from Spelman College and holds a master’s and doctorate in clinical psychology from Florida International University. She completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric psychology and infant and early childhood mental health from the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Of note, Dr. Cheatham-Johnson’s second year of postdoctoral training was funded by the American Psychological Association (APA) Minority Fellowship Program.

Dr. Cheatham-Johnson's longstanding commitment to health equity informs all facets of her work. She says she “strives to advocate for and provide culturally responsive care to all children and families.” She is involved in committee service and serves on the Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Commission and the BLAC (Build the workforce, Learn & Lead, Advocate and Collaborate) employee workgroup at Children’s Health. Dr. Cheatham-Johnson is a member of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative (CNOC) and the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPC-QIC).

She is a recipient of several research grants and is a co-investigator for SPARK Equity in Action: Increasing Inclusion of Black/African Americans in the MS SPARK Cohort. She has multiple original peer-reviewed publications, including Top 10 things to know about perinatal mental health and a peer-reviewed article on Latino parent involvement and associations with home literacy and oral reading fluency. Dr. Cheatham-Johnson is also a requested lecturer and has presented on a number of topics, including Diversity and Cultural Considerations in Clinical Practice.

In her free time, Dr. Cheatham-Johnson enjoys spending time with family, reading, hiking and cuddling with her puppy, Halo.