Research
Dr. Giovanelli’s research focuses on the realities of growing up in the world today: Navigating healthy technology use, substance use, mental health challenges, and family dynamics through the lens of the science of development.
She believes that with support, care, and attention to unique context, young people and their families can thrive. Below are just a few of the topics Dr. Giovanelli has spent her career investigating:
Adolescent and Young Adult Substance Use: Bringing Families into Treatment
Dr. Giovanelli has studied and delivered evidence-based Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) groups, adapting these groups for caregivers of adolescents and young adults in the Bay Area. CRAFT emphasizes connection between loved ones and strategies for helping people build a rewarding life without substance use, rather than asking parents to wait for their child to “hit rock bottom.” She currently has a publication under review Implementing Community Reinforcement and Family Training for Caregivers in Youth with Substance Use Disorders via a Group Telehealth Model. For this work, Dr. Giovanelli drew on both her clinical expertise in working with families and her research and methodological expertise in implementing effective interventions.
Digital Interventions, Artificial Intelligence, and Adolescent Mental Health
Dr. Giovanelli has spent much of her career studying adolescent technology use and thinking about how to “meet teens where they are” (which is often online) and leverage technology for positive change. This remains true, and there are many future applications of AI for teen mental health. However, due to the recent uptick in teen use of AI platforms like chatbots while in mental health crisis, Dr. Giovanelli has also turned her attention to adolescent vulnerability to these new AI-powered technologies, and how adults can educate themselves and teens on risks and benefits.
In 2025, she published an invited commentary in JAMA Network Open examining adolescent vulnerability to consumer AI chatbots and emerging concerns surrounding unregulated AI-supported mental health interactions. In April 2026, she served as an invited panelist at the Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting in Toronto discussing the role of AI in reducing educational and mental health disparities among adolescents. Around this time she was also invited to be on a panel at the UN AI for Good – Law Track Conference hosted at Stanford Law School, but was unable to attend due to a conflict. Finally, Dr. Giovanelli appeared in KTVU Bay Area as a subject matter expert on teen use of AI chatbots for mental health concerns.
Adolescent and Young Adult Substance Use: The New Cannabis Landscape
Through her work as the Attending Psychologist at UCSF’s former Youth Outpatient Substance Use Program, Dr. Giovanelli saw many teens and young adults using high-potency cannabis products that impacted their physical and mental health, relationships, and daily functioning. The cannabis of today is nearly unrecognizable compared to the cannabis of 20 or even 10 years ago. Dr. Giovanelli served as Principal Investigator of a California Department of Cannabis Control-funded study examining the biophysiological and psychosocial correlates of high-potency THC products, including biomarkers, mood and withdrawal, cognitive impairment, and variation in THC metabolism. A publication based on this work is currently under review and it has become a passion in Dr. Giovanelli’s clinical work.
Early Childhood Education and Development
Dr. Giovanelli’s path into this work started in a kindergarten classroom. Before she became a psychologist, she taught kindergarten in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a Teach for America Corps member. Her experience as a kindergarten teacher taught her how much of a child's trajectory is shaped by their early environment - family, school, neighborhood, and the systems around them - with effects that last over the lifespan. That question led her to a passion for developmental science and informed her doctoral research.
Working as a researcher with the Chicago Longitudinal Study, she spent years examining how comprehensive early childhood education programs can alter the arc of children's lives, and how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) shape well-being decades later. That work, published in Pediatrics, JAMA Network Open, JAMA Pediatrics, and Development and Psychopathology, traced participants into midlife, linking early intervention to outcomes as varied as educational attainment, reduced exposure to violence, and physical and mental health. It's also where her core conviction was conceived: development is cumulative, context matters enormously, and effective support can change what comes next.