Dr. Croarkin is the Ervin A. and Margaret C. Mueller Director of the Children’s Research Center at Mayo Clinic and the Chair for Pediatric Research in the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. He is a professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Pharmacology in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacloogy.

Dr. Croarkin completed medical school at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He then completed residency training in psychiatry at Naval Medical Center San Diego, where he served as chief resident. Following this, Dr. Croarkin served as a US Navy psychiatrist in an academic role at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and in an operational setting as a psychiatrist embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in North Babil during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He returned for clinical and research training in child and adolescent psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, again serving as chief resident. He earned a Master of Science degree with distinction in clinical science from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Thereafter, he joined the Mayo Clinic Department of Psychiatry and Psychology.

An expert in child, adolescent, and adult mood disorders, neurotherapeutics, and psychopharmacology, Dr. Croarkin conducts research to develop innovative diagnostic and treatment approaches for children and adolescents. His research has been funded by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the National Institutes of Health, and industry partnerships. His team focuses on adapting and innovating neurotherapeutics for youth with psychiatric disorders while studying GABAergic and glutamatergic neurotransmission. These efforts have informed and supported the clinical implementation of transcranial magnetic stimulation interventions for adolescents with depression. His findings have been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including The Journal of the American Academy Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, and Neuropsychopharmacology.