Karen Parker is an associate professor and associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University where she directs the Social Neurosciences Research Program. Her research expertise is the biology of social functioning, with a particular interest in oxytocin and vasopressin signaling pathways. Her preclinical research program focuses on developing novel monkey models of social impairments; her clinical research program encompasses biomarker discovery and therapeutic testing in people with autism and other brain disorders.

Parker received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University. She joined the Stanford faculty in 2007. She is an Affiliate Scientist at the California National Primate Research Center, a Member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences.

Her research program has been supported by multiple funding agencies, including the Simons Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. She serves on the Editorial Board of Psychoneuroendocrinology, and on various national and international grant review committees and scientific panels.