Edna Normand, MD, PhD

Edna Normand, MD, PhD is a resident physician at the Yale Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience Research Training Program (NRTP). She works to bridge the gap between medicine, science, and society.

Dr. Normand completed her PhD at Princeton University and her MD at Rutgers RWJ, as part of the joint MD/PhD program at RWJ-Princeton. Using tools such as machine learning, whole-brain connectomics, and optogenetics, she mapped sexually dimorphic brain circuits in flies and studied how audiovisual signals are transformed into real-time motor responses during natural social interactions. Her dissertation sits at the intersection of circuits and systems neuroscience, computational neuroscience, and neuroethology, with a focus on multisensory signal processing. Her work was funded by an NIH F30 grant and presented at national and international conferences. She has been recognized by awards such as Merck’s Top 10 Global Innovator and the NIH BRAIN Initiative highlight award. Prior to her MD/PhD training, she earned dual bachelor’s degrees in neurobiology and media studies on a full merit scholarship at the Macaulay Honors College (CUNY-Hunter).

In addition to her medical training and scientific background, Dr. Normand has worked for over 15 years across a spectrum of award-winning service and leadership roles, including during public emergencies such as Hurricane Sandy. Born in New York City, she is a first generation college graduate. Through formative encounters with her underserved immigrant community's experiences with mental illness and language/cultural barriers, she developed early interests in public psychiatry and science that could improve the lives of chronically ill patients. Throughout her MD/PhD training, she worked at a free clinic for uninsured patients for nine years.

At Yale, she is interested in building an interdisciplinary research program involving psychotic disorders, brain-body intersections, and neuromodulation (TMS, VNS, and ultrasound), drawing on her expertise in neural circuits and signal processing. She is also interested in providing integrated care for patients with complex neuropsychiatric and medical needs (including functional disorders). Dr. Normand is committed to serving the New Haven community and aims to provide outstanding and compassionate care to her patients, including those who have limited access to care, while advancing science toward future treatments.