Faculty in the Behavioral Medicine/Health Psychology Track
Faculty who are not likely to take a student in the academic year are indicated by an asterisk. Faculty who do not have an asterisk next to their name may or may not be taking a student.
*Niloofar Afari, Ph.D., (University of Nevada, Reno), Assitant Professor in Residence, UCSD. Twin studies of unexplained medical conditions such as fibromyalgia and chronic pelvic pain; stress trauma and health-related outcomes; acceptance-based treatment strategies.
* Cathie J. Atkins, Ph.D. (University of California at Riverside), Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, SDSU. Health outcome evaluation, adolescent health promotion, research methodology.
* Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Ph.D. (University of California at San Francisco), Professor of Psychiatry, UCSD. Sleep disorders; disordered breathing, periodic limb movements in sleep, parasomnias and insomnia.
* J. Hampton Atkinson, Jr., M.D. (Stanford University), Adjunct Professor, UCSD. Evaluation and treatment of cancer and benign pain, psychological adaptations to medical illness, neuropsychiatry of HIV.
Kerri Boutelle, Ph.D. (Illinois Institute of Technology Clinical Psychology), Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Psychiatry, UCSD. Obesity and eating disorder treatments with children and adolescents, parenting interventions, cue reactivity, epidemiology of nutrition, physical activity and obesity.
Sandra A. Brown, Ph.D. (Wayne State University), Professor and Chief, Psychology Services VASDHS, UCSD. Adolescent and adult alcohol/substance abuse; stress and coping; psychiatric comorbidity.
* Karen J. Calfas, Ph.D., (SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral in Clinical Psychology) Assistant Vice Chancellor, Student Wellness, UCSD. Physical activity interventions; nutrition interventions; primary care settings; college health.
Terry A. Cronan, Ph.D. (Michigan State University), Professor, SDSU. Behavioral medicine, health disparities, cancer prevention, empowerment based interventions, social support, coping with chronic diseases, and multicultural issues.
*Joel E. Dimsdale, M.D. (Stanford University), Professor, UCSD. Physiology of stress and the cardiovascular system, consultation/liaison psychiatry, behavioral medicine, culture and illness, quality of life, sleep.
John P. Elder, Ph.D. ( West Virginia University), Professor, SDSU. Smoking prevention and tobacco control, nutritional health and exercise promotion, chronic disease prevention in Latino communities, behavior change and public health in developing countries.
Linda Gallo, Ph.D. (University of Utah), Associate Professor, SDSU. Psychosocial factors in coronary heart disease risk and outcomes; psychophysiological models of disease risk; socioeconomic and ethnic health disparities; gender differences and women's health.
Ann Garland, Ph.D. (Yale University), Professor, UCSD. Mental health service need, use, and outcome for high risk youth; effectiveness of psychotherapy for youth.
Igor Grant, M.D. (University of British Columbia), Professor, Executive Vice Chair of Psychiatry, UCSD. Stressors, human coping, and health; neuropsychology of alcohol, drug abuse, and other diseases; neurobehavioral research on AIDS; effect of chronic stress on the health of the elderly.
Melbourne F. Hovell, Ph.D. (University of Kansas), M.P.H., Professor, SDSU. Director, Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health. Modification of risk factors for prevention of cardiovascular disease, cancer, AIDS and other chronic and infectious disease conditions; emphasis studies of women, children from low income, racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants and in developing countries, including Latin American and Asia. .
Elizabeth A. Klonoff, Ph.D. (University of Oregon), Professor and Co-Director Joint Doctoral Program, SDSU. Ethnicity and gender disparities in health; the role of acculturation, discrimination, and segregation in health and illness; tobacco research, with an emphasis on youth access to tobacco; tobacco-control policies.
* James A. Kulik, Ph.D. (Harvard), Professor, UCSD. Stress and coping, and emotion; social support; social comparison processes; prevention.
* Saul Levine, M.D. (McGill University, Montreal, Quebec), Professor, UCSD. Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division of UCSD. Psychiatry training, Stanford SOM; adolescent behavior; belief systems; resilience; violence; cults.
Alan J. Litrownik, Ph.D. (University of Illinois), Professor, SDSU. Developmental psychopathology, child maltreatment effects and interventions; cancer risk reduction.
Vanessa L. Malcarne, Ph.D. (University of Vermont), Professor, SDSU. Prevention and quality of life issues in serious illness, especially cancer and the rheumatic diseases, with a focus on underserved populations; test construction and validation across cultural groups.
Georg E. Matt, Ph.D. (Northwestern University), Professor, SDSU. Behaviors, pathways, properties of micro-environments and tobacco smoke pollutants that mediate and moderate exposure to secondhand and thirdhand smoke; measurement of persistent tobacco smoke pollution of micro-environments; tobacco control policies to protect nonsmokers from environmental tobacco smoke exposure; fuzzy set models for retrospective reports of health and social behaviors; program evaluation; meta-analysis; generalizability.
Brent Mausbach, Ph.D. (Pacific Graduate School of Psychology), Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCSD. Research focuses on bridging basic scientific research with clinical services in two domains; links between stress/coping and health outcomes, and their association with health outcomes and well-being;
The assessment and treatment of middle-aged and older adults with schizophrenia.
* Joni A. Mayer, Ph.D. (Virginia Tech), Professor, SDSU. Cancer control, nutrition management, health promotion, women's health issues.
* Paul J. Mills, Ph.D. (Maharishi University), Professor in Residence, UCSD. Psychoneuroimmunology, the role of the immune system in inflammation in stress and hypertension, inflammation and fatigue in breast cancer, effects of spaceflight on adrenergic receptors and immunity. http://psychiatry.ucsd.edu/faculty/pmills.html
*Mark G. Myers, Ph.D., Professor, UCSD. Youth addictive behaviors: adolescent smoking cessation; teen and young adult tobacco use self-change; course of tobacco and other substance use in young adults; relationships between smoking and other substance use in teens and young adults.
* Gregory J. Norman, Ph.D. (University of Rhode Island), Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCSD, Family and Preventive Medicine. Health promotion interventions through Internet and primary care, physical activity, smoking cessation, theories of health behavior change, scale development, quantitative methods, data analysis.
Kevin Patrick, MD, MS (Baylor College of Medicine) Professor in Residence, UCSD. Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and Director of the Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems at the California Institute for Telecommonications and Information Technology (Calit2), San Diego Division. He has been a PI or Co-PI on more than $28 million in research training grants funded by NIH, CDC, HRSA and others. His research explores how to use mobile and social technologies to measure and improve health-related behaviors.
*Thomas L. Patterson, Ph.D. (University of California at Riverside), Professor in Residence, UCSD. HIV prevention among seropositive individuals, and methamphetamine users. Physiological consequences of stressful life events such as caregiving for Alzheimer's disease patients. Interventions to reduce disability in schizophrenia.
* Scott C. Roesch, Ph.D. (University of Nebraska), Associate Professor, SDSU. Stress and coping with particular interest in cognitive approaches (e.g., attributions); trait-state models; physical illness; and ethnic, culture, and acculturation differences.
* Thomas Rutledge, Ph.D. (University of British Columbia), Assistant Professor in Residence, UCSD. Behavioral factors in hypertension and cardiovascular disease, cardiac risk management, psychosocial interventions in patients with heart disease.
*Georgia Sadler, Ph.D. (The Union Institute and University), Professor, UCSD. Leading the research and service activities of the UCSD Cancer Center’s Community Outreach Program. The Community Outreach Program interfaces with every aspect of the Cancer Center’s operation. Dr. Sadler is conversant in the Cancer Center’s clinical mission, with a working knowledge of cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and clinical trials.
Melody Sadler, Ph.D. (University of Colorado, Boulder), Assistant Professor, SDSU. Areas of interest include category differentiation and inter-group evaluative bias, the formation of stereotyping and prejudice in groups and the implications for information processing.
* James F. Sallis, Ph.D. (Memphis State University), Professor, SDSU. Health promotion; approaches to changing physical activity, nutrition, and smoking behaviors in adults and children, environmental influences on health behavior. www.drjamessallis.sdsu.edu
* William J. Sieber, Ph.D. (Yale University), Associate Clinical Professor, UCSD. Measurement issues in mind-body medicine, quality of life, effects of psychological interventions on physical health, self-management in chronic illness, translational research on mental health in primary care (collaborative care).
*Steffanie Strathdee, Ph.D. (University of Toronto), Professor, UCSD. Prevention of blood borne infections and barriers to care among injection drug using populations, specifically HIV and viral hepatitis.
Julie Loebach Wetherell, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Residence, UCSD. Chronic pain; Acceptance and Commitment Therapy interventions; anxiety disorders and trauma in older adults; mental health in geriatric medical settings.
Shu-Hong Zhu, Ph.D., Professor in Residence, UCSD. Behavioral intervention, smoking behaviors in adults, adolescents, and pregnant women, smoking and depression, population study of health behavior, methodology.
* Maria Luisa Zuniga, Ph.D., Assitant Professor, UCSD. Behavioral epidemiology research focus on improving the health of Latino populations living with HIV/AIDS in the US-Mexico border region; applying principles of Community-Based Participatory Research to partner with community agencies.
