Sloane Sparks, DNP, PMHNP

Associate in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Clinical Director
Psychiatric Assessment Service
Team Lead, VUMC Psychiatry Advanced Practice Providers
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Village at Vanderbilt

Dr. Sparks is a Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner who began in 2017 as a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (2014), Master of Science in Nursing (2016), and Doctor of Nursing Practice (2020) from Vanderbilt University.

She also frequently precepts VUSN students. She is the Psychiatry Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Team Lead, dedicating additional time to recruitment, training, engagement, and orientation of all APPs throughout Vanderbilt Behavioral Health.

Clinical Interests

Clinical care includes practice in the School-Based Mental Health Program via telehealth and on-site visits, the psychiatric consultation-liaison service at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital with a focus in the heme/onc population, and in Psychiatric Assessment Services for emergency psychiatry.

Research Information

Research activity includes collaborating in Dr. Blythe Corbett's Social Emotional NeuroScience Endocrinology (SENSE) lab in the longitudinal research of pubertal transition in youth with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Representative Publications

Corbett, B. A., Muscatello, R. A., Kim, A., Vandekar, S., Duffus, S., Sparks, S., & Tanguturi, Y. (2022). Examination of pubertal timing and tempo in females and males with autism spectrum disorder compared to typically developing youth. Autism Research, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2786