Maya Balakrishnan | MD, MPH
Imogen Bell | PhD
Lizbeth 'Libby' Benson | PhD
Research Summary: I am an Assistant Professor in the Data Science for Dynamic Intervention Decision Making Center (d3c) at the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center and Institute for Social Research. Before moving to Michigan, I completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the TSET Health Promotion Research Center and earned my PhD from the Pennsylvania State University in the department of Human Development and Family Studies. My research program is focused on intensive longitudinal, computational, and machine learning methods for examining temporal dynamics of affective, social and health behavior experiences using ecological momentary assessment and sensor-based data collected from individuals in their daily lives. My goals are to understand how behavioral processes unfold across multiple time-scales and contexts, and how this knowledge can be used to build personalized interventions to facilitate health behavior change. Currently, I am writing a NIH K01 focused on developing and testing mHealth just-in-time personalized data visualizations for smoking cessation.
Alex Bettis | PhD
Research Summary: I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a licensed clinical psychologist. My research aims to elucidate key mechanisms of interventions for adolescent mental health to improve the prevention and treatment evidence base, and to develop and test accessible, and scalable interventions to increase access to evidence-based care. My program of research includes theoretical and empirical investigations of emotion regulation processes in youth at-risk for suicide, and the development of digital health interventions to support youth and families during high-risk clinical transition periods. One of the central questions in my research is understanding how adolescents manage emotions and distress during periods of major clinical transition (i.e., after discharging from a psychiatric hospitalization or psychiatric emergency department visit).
Paul Bloom | PhD
Jessee Dietch | PhD, DBSM
Kris L. Dorsey | PhD
Beth Dunbar | PhD
Institution: University of Washington - Digital Initiatives Group
Position: Senior Digital Health Specialist
Research Interest: client-facing technologies, costing interventions, reimagining point of care interventions, and new methods for designing equitable digital health tools
Research Summary: I am a health design researcher and epidemiologist with 15+ years experience optimizing domestic and global health technologies. I am a Senior Digital Health Specialist at the Digital Initiatives Group at I-TECH at the University of Washington and recently finished my PhD in Human Centered Design and Engineering. Current research interests include client-facing technologies, costing interventions, reimagining point of care interventions, and new methods for designing equitable digital health tools. I spent 6 years leading Monitoring, Evaluation, Informatics & Research teams for Partners In Health in both remote Liberia and rural Malawi and spent a couple years with CDC and CSTE working on domestic health and informatics projects.
Asim H. Gazi | PhD
Simon Goldberg | PhD
Research Interest: psychotherapy, with a specific emphasis on the effects of and mechanisms underlying meditation- and mindfulness-based interventions
Lauren Henry | PhD, MS
Meelim Kim | PhD
Dmitry Kireev | PhD
Research Interest: Bioelectronics, Wearables, E-tattoos, 2D Materials, Human-Mahine Interfaces
Kayla Knopp | PhD
Research Summary: My research focuses on how we can help people improve their intimate relationships to improve their health, mental health, and well-being. My projects focus on improving both the effectiveness and accessibility of evidence-based couple therapy and other relationship interventions. My current VA-funded Career Development Award is a clinical trial testing the effectiveness of OurRelationship, an online relationship program, for veterans at VA San Diego and their intimate partners. I am also working on projects testing how we can use psychedelics and other pharmacological agents (e.g., MDMA, oxytocin) to enhance couple-based treatment for PTSD.
Jisook Ko | PhD, RN
Research Summary: My research is focused on advancing mHealth methodologies, specifically by integrating wearable devices and voice-assisted smart speakers. The aim of research is to develop and implement culturally-tailored approaches for improving adherence and maintainance to heathy eating among ethnic minority populations with chronic diseases by leveraging mHealth technologies. The emphasis is on providing personalized nutrition interventions to address the unique needs and preferences of these communities.
Xin Yao Lin | PhD
Research Summary: My research focuses on technology use, social relationships/support, health/health behavior, and well-being in adult development, aging, and caregiving using quantitative and qualitative methods. My dissertation, funded by sources including the National Institute on Aging's Boston Roybal Center, investigated the relationship between social technology use, social support, physical activity, and well-being. I aim to conduct longitudinal intervention studies to improve health and utilize technology for social connectedness among diverse older adults and their caregivers.
Preeti Manavalan | MD, MSc
Research Interest: HIV, HIV-related comorbidities, mhealth, implementation science
Ellen W. McGinnis | PhD
Jonah Meyerhoff | PhD
Xiaomin Ouyang | PhD
Ranjita Poudel | PhD
Violeta J. Rodriguez | PhD, MSEd
Meghan Romanelli | PhD, LCSW
Research Summary: My research has focused on understanding and addressing the multisystemic factors that lead to mental health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations, with a focus on the role of service access and treatment engagement. I am funded by a K01 from NIMH to optimize engagement in digital mental health services among sexual and gender minority consumers. I am also interested in designing and building tailored resources through human-centered design approaches.
Koustuv Saha | PhD
Roman Shrestha | PhD, MPH
Institution: University of Connecticut
Position: Assistant Professor
Research Interest: mHealth, HIV, substance use, mental health, global health
Research Summary: My research broadly focuses on health disparities in sexual and gender minority (SGM) communities, particularly in the areas of HIV, substance use, and mental health. I have a keen focus on utilizing mobile health (mHealth) technology to extend the scope of evidence-based interventions aimed at addressing the unique challenges SGM individuals face. Presently, I am creating a just-in-time-adaptive intervention (JITAI) to enhance HIV prevention and address chemsex-related harm reduction among men who have sex with men engaged in chemsex.
Petr Slovak | PhD
Research Summary: I research how user-centred design can be combined with evidence-based psychology to lead to novel technology-enabled intervention models. My group's work specifically focuses on core transdiagnostic factors (such as emotion regulation and parenting), and collaborations across preventative and clinical domains. Together with our collaborators, we aim to span the full breadth of envision, designing, developing and formally testing innovative interventions -- often moving from early needs-finding qualitative work to optimisation or Randomised Control Trials within a single long-term project.