Dr. Nagel is an Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University, where she serves as the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry, directs the Developmental Brain Imaging Laboratory, and is the Director of pediatric neuropsychology and a practicing neuropsychologist within the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Nagel's research focuses on adolescent brain and cognitive development in healthy and at-risk populations. Her work has primarily focused on understanding the development of executive, emotional, and reward-based networks in the brain using neuroimaging and how perturbations to these systems may result in a heightened vulnerability for mental illness during the adolescent years. More specifically, her lab has been conducting longitudinal neuroimaging studies of Portland-area youth for the past 10 years, with aims toward identifying neurobiological markers of risk and resilience for psychopathology, including addiction, and hopes of ultimately informing more targeted intervention and prevention efforts. She is a Principal Investigator on several federally-funded National multi-site projects toward that end, including the National Consortium on Alcohol & Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) and the recently funded Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD).

Dr. Nagel has extensive experience in the neuropsychological evaluation of children and adolescents referred for a variety of conditions, including epilepsy, learning disabilities, traumatic brain injury, genetic/metabolic abnormalities, brain tumors, and attention problems. Dr. Nagel's primary research focuses on exploring typical adolescent brain and cognitive development using structural and functional neuroimaging and neuropsychological assessment techniques. Additionally, Dr. Nagel has applied her research findings and methodologies from her studies of normally developing youth to other populations, including pediatric cancer survivors and adolescents with substance abuse disorders. Dr. Nagel has published several peer-reviewed articles in the area of child and adolescent cognition and brain development, serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for several scholarly journals, and regularly attends and presents at professional conferences. Dr. Nagel has also been involved with teaching and supervision of undergraduate, graduate, and medical students.