Faculty Mentors

The Behavioral Sleep Medicine (BSM) Lab is directed by Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, and Jennifer Mundt, PhD, and is housed within the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine. Our lab focuses on innovations in cognitive and behavioral interventions to improve sleep health, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness meditation for insomnia and other sleep disorders. Of particular interest to the lab is the use of digital and telehealth delivery to disseminate these interventions. Projects include telehealth and app-based programs using mindfulness and behavioral interventions for narcolepsy, tests of the use of CBT for insomnia (CBT-I) and/or mindfulness on other conditions, such as obstructive sleep apnea, migraine headaches and cardiovascular diseases. In addition to intervention studies, the BSM Lab also conducts and collaborates on studies examining the psychological and physiological mechanisms related to sleep and circadian disturbances, autonomic functioning and pain. Visit the BSM Lab website.

The Exercise and Health Lab, led by Siobhan Phillips, PhD, is focused on understanding the determinants and health outcomes of physical activity participation and the translation of this research into practice using technology and innovative research methods. We are particularly interested in the role of physical activity in cancer prevention, control and survivorship. Additionally, we are interested in exploring ways to get everyone to be more active.

Current research focuses on developing and implementing a mobile phone-delivered physical activity promotion intervention for breast cancer survivors using the Multiphase Optimization Strategy Trial methodology and an observational study examining changes in patient reported outcomes and physical activity in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy using ecological momentary assessment methodology.

Northwestern University's Center for Applied Health Research on Aging (CAHRA) promotes informed decision making and actions leading to optimal health and well-being among individuals and families over the life span. The Center explores the cognitive, psychosocial and health system factors that affect an individual's ability to successfully manage one's health and develops interventions to help patients and families obtain, process and understand health information to make appropriate health decisions and adopt recommended behaviors.

CAHRA include six major research programs, including the Health Literacy and Learning Program, Cognitive Aging Program, Psychosocial Support Program, Life Course Health Program, Treatment Adherence Program, and the Measurement and Analyses Program. 

The CAHRA director is Michael Wolf, PhD, MPH. with additional mentorship provided by Andrea Russell, PhD

The Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing conducts translational research to improve the health of the LGBTQ+ community and to increase understanding of the development of sexual orientation and gender identity. We seek to achieve this mission by developing innovative, evidence-based interventions, collaborating with the LGBTQ+ community, training the next generation of LGBTQ+ scholars and disseminating research findings to scientific and general audiences. The primary mentor is Michael Newcomb, PhD.

Judith Moskowitz, PhD, MPH, studies behavioral and psychosocial factors in the context of significant illness or other life stress. Her current research is focused on the adaptive role of positive emotion regulation for support of beneficial health behavior change (such as diet and physical activity) and prevention of maladaptive health behaviors (such as substance abuse). Her work addresses health and health behaviors in a range of patient populations, including dementia caregivers, high school students, people with type 2 diabetes, women with stage IV breast cancer and people living with HIV. She examines the unique adaptive role of positive emotion in the process of coping with various types of health-related and other life stress and, through randomized trials, determines whether a positive emotion regulation intervention can increase positive affect, reduce stress and depression, and improve health behaviors in at-risk samples. Visit the lab website.

The Clinical Neuropsychology lab is directed by Sandra Weintraub, PhD, ABCN, ABPP. Weintraub's lab is within the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease and focuses on studies of cognition in "normal" aging, "SuperAging" (better than normal cognitive functioning in the elderly) and age-associated dementias, such as those caused by Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

Current studies address behavioral, genetic and neuroimaging markers of these conditions, risk factors for healthy and diseased cognitive aging (including the relationship between sleep and memory loss) and the relationship between cognitive deficits and neuropathology at postmortem brain autopsy. One of the key areas in which students are conducting research is the clinical syndrome of primary progressive aphasia. This disorder is characterized by the insidious onset and progressive loss over time of language function (aphasia) due to neurodegenerative disease that targets the left cerebral hemisphere neuroanatomical network underlying normal language function.

Findings from this lab have been published in top neurology and neuropsychology journals and have spanned neuropathology, neurolinguistics, structural and functional neuroimaging, genetic risk factors, and the impact of disease on patients and their caregivers. Cross-lab collaborations in Chicago and Evanston permit students to broaden the translational value of research.

This lab is directed by Tamar Gefen, PhD, within the Mesulam Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center. Gefen's research focuses on investigating clinic-pathologic relationships in neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's, frontotemporal lobar degeneration) and trajectories of highly successful aging ("SuperAging"). Methods include neuropathologic evaluation based on brain autopsy, stereological analysis and integration of histologic markers with antemortem imaging and comprehensive neuropsychological data.

The Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR) is committed to promoting the training of child and adolescent mental health workers from a public health perspective. It is generally acknowledged that the vast majority of children and adolescents in need of mental health services do not receive them through traditional delivery methods, such as fee-for-service individual treatment. In response to this public health crisis, our center is working within the community to identify mental health needs and to disseminate and implement empirically supported treatments that are viable within community settings.

The emphasis of this program is on school mental health, community-based trauma training, restorative justice, and public policy and advocacy. Our research is focused on fidelity of treatments as they move out of the research lab into the community as well as on the outcomes of dissemination and implementation, including moderators and mediators that make for more effective treatment outcomes.

Primary mentors in CCR are Mashana Smith PhD, Colleen Cicchetti, PhD, David Johnson PhD, and Tali Raviv, PhD.

The Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Laboratory is directed by Molly Losh, PhD. The lab investigates the language and related abilities that define autism and related neurodevelopmental disabilities and the neuropsychological, genetic and environmental features that may be associated with the behavioral and cognitive profiles of these different groups.

Specific study goals include:

• Understanding the different developmental strengths and weaknesses in language and related abilities in autism and related neurodevelopmental disabilities.
• Defining subtle language and neuropsychological profiles that may relate to the genes involved in autism and fragile X syndrome, among unaffected relatives.
• Documenting the interactions between genes and environment in neurodevelopmental disabilities.

The Chicago Lab for Emotion and Physiology, led by Stewart Shankman, PhD, and Allison Letkiewicz PhD, is devoted to researching depression and similar internalizing disorders. Shankman's research focuses on the relation between depression and anxiety disorders, with an emphasis on neurobehavioral studies examining common versus specific emotional processes between these two disorders. He also has an important line of research examining the familial transmission and course of internalizing psychopathology. Shankman is currently the principal investigator on several NIMH-funded research studies examining biobehavioral processes of depression and/or anxiety.

The M-Body lab focuses on developing, testing and implementing evidence-based mental health interventions that are accessible and acceptable among high-risk, disadvantaged populations. Depressive disorders are common, particularly among disadvantaged individuals with less education and income, such as women who are unemployed. This high-risk, disadvantaged population is also more likely to hold stigmatizing beliefs and negative attitudes toward traditional mental health treatment and less likely to receive treatment.

The aims of the M-Body Lab are to:

• Understand stigmatizing attitudes and beliefs related to psychiatric disorders and treatment.
• Use this knowledge to adapt existing or develop new evidence-based interventions that are culturally appropriate and acceptable.
• Examine the efficacy of novel mental health interventions among high-risk, disadvantaged populations.
• Create a model of implementation that facilitates easy access to treatment and broad dissemination.

The primary mentor is Inger Burnett-Zeigler, PhD.

The Mothers and Babies Lab is directed by Darius Tandon, PhD, and focuses broadly on improving the mental health of pregnant individuals and their children. Mothers and Babies is an evidence-based intervention focused on prevention of postpartum depression that is implemented either in a group or individual modality in a variety of community and clinical settings. Current work includes a longitudinal examination of the program's effectiveness in improving responsive parenting and child self-regulation, testing of a newly created Fathers and Babies intervention for delivery to the partners of perinatal women, examination of implementation and effectiveness as Mothers and Babies is replicated among service providers across the United States, and studies that explore optimal intervention dosage using adaptive trial designs and "just-in-time" responses using text messages to supplement core intervention content. Visit the Mothers and Babies website for more information about the intervention and other studies.

This lab focuses on designing interventions to improve the long-term treatments and outcomes of patients with emotional disorders, with particular emphasis on OCD and anxiety disorders. The lab focuses primarily on two intersecting areas: the hypothesis-driven development and adaptation of empirically supported treatments and the use of translational research methods to identify critical, transdiagnostic mechanisms of dysfunction and barriers to recovery. A secondary focus of the laboratory is on eating disorders particularly as they relate to other OC spectrum conditions. The primary mentor is Tina Boisseau, PhD.

This lab is directed by Robert Hanlon, PhD, ABPP-CN, and Michael Brook, PhD, and is focused on forensic neuropsychology and neurocriminology, areas of research that involve the application of neuropsychological theory and methods to the understanding of the root causes of violent aggression and criminal behavior. Specific projects in the lab address the following:

• Neuropsychological functioning in homicide offenders
• Relationships between neurocognition, emotion processing, psychopathy and violent behavior
• The development of comprehensive violence risk assessment instruments

Students in our lab choose either Clinical Neuropsychology or Forensic Psychology as their Major Area of Study.

The Health Disparities & Public Policy Program provides opportunities to study the health needs and outcomes of underserved populations. We have studied men and women in jail and youth in juvenile detention. We have focused on the development and persistence of psychiatric disorders, disparities in risk and protective factors associated with psychiatric disorders, service utilization, victimization and perpetration of firearm violence and HIV/AIDS risk behaviors. The program's current study is the Northwestern Juvenile Project: Next Generation, a study of the children of the original 1,829 participants in the Northwestern Juvenile Project, focusing on characteristics that promote resilience in at-risk families. We recently received grants from the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Institutes of Health focusing on resilience to drug abuse and firearm involvement. In addition, we plan to examine how a parent's incarceration (especially during the child's lifetime) affects their children and what factors promote mental health, being substance-free, avoiding problem behaviors and positive educational outcomes.

Overall, our mission is to provide empirical data on populations that are seldom investigated, help improve services for traditionally underserved populations and guide the development of innovative public policy. Our studies have been cited in Supreme Court amicus briefs, in congressional hearings, in recent reports of the surgeon general and by many federal agencies, private agencies and advocacy groups.

Primary mentors are Linda Teplin, PhD, and Karen Abram, PhD.

The Mental Health Services and Policy Program (MHSPP) provides research, evaluation, outcomes management, training and technical assistance that helps improve the lives of individuals and families who receive publicly funded mental health services and supports providers across a range of service settings. Funded by state contracts and federal grants, including the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, MHSPP associates assess and address a range of mental health, child welfare and child trauma needs in community settings.

Our NCTSN-affiliated Center for Child Trauma Assessment, Services and Interventions (CCTASI) offers national expertise on trauma-informed assessment as well as practices and addresses gaps in trauma-informed services across a range of settings, including child welfare, juvenile justice and education. Our CCTASI work emphasizes programs for early education and transition age youth through training and implementation support, resource development and evaluation of trauma-informed services.

Our unique relationships with multiple state and federal agencies and court systems allow students to conduct program and policy evaluation using data from the child welfare, mental health and juvenile justice systems. Through research and evaluation, coursework and clinical practicum opportunities, MHSPP prepares students to contribute to policy and administrative decisions affecting youth and families who receive publicly-funded mental health, child trauma and child welfare services.

Primary mentors are Neil Jordan, PhD, Cassandra Kisiel, PhD, and Richard Epstein PhD