Marina Zhukova

Marina Zhukova is director of the Center for Eating Disorders at the John S. Dunn Behavioral Sciences Center at UTHealth Houston and assistant professor in the Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. Dr. Zhukova has more than a decade of clinical experience with children and adolescents presenting with complex psychiatric conditions, trauma, and chronic illness. She brings particular expertise in high-acuity psychiatric and pediatric care, specializing in avoidance-based behaviors and rigidity within feeding and eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety. Her clinical background also includes extensive work with high-acuity psychiatric presentations, including suicidality, self-harm, aggression, and psychosis. In 2023, she received the Excellence in Inpatient Care Award from UTHealth Houston.

Dr. Zhukova has conducted international research on the effects of institutionalization in orphanages, with funding from organizations including the Society for Research in Child Development and the Russian Science Foundation. She has authored and contributed to more than 30 peer-reviewed publications. Building on her international work on institutionalization, Dr. Zhukova continues clinical care with children facing early life adversity, including those in state custody and foster care. She integrates her research on parenting into her practice by equipping caregivers with strategies to support children’s success in treatment and beyond.

Dr. Zhukova is actively engaged in program development, outcomes research, and the supervision and training of psychology interns, practicum students, and psychiatry residents at the Dunn Behavioral Sciences Center. She is passionate about transmitting knowledge and advancing evidence-based care. She currently serves as vice chair of the Early Career Professionals and Students Special Interest Group at the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.