With a highly collaborative, transdisciplinary team of colleagues, mentors, and trainees, I conduct parallel lines of clinical research examining (1) fear of recurrence and (2) insomnia among adults affected by cancer and other health conditions, with an emphasis on mind-body and behavioral interventions for managing these concerns.
My research seeks to bridge behavioral medicine, mental health, and psycho-oncology, as reflected in my faculty appointments in the MGH Department of Psychiatry, MGH Behavioral Medicine, MGH Mongan Institute Health Promotion and Resiliency Intervention Research center, MGH Cancer Center Psychiatric Oncology Services, MGH Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Cancer Care Delivery Research Program. These collaborations have resulted in continuous extramural grant funding since 2015, 61 publications (24/1st author, 4/senior author), over 75 national and international conference presentations, multiple early career awards, and mentorship of junior pre- and postdoctoral trainees. From 2020-2022, I co-chaired the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Integrative Health and Spirituality Special Interest Group. I am highly involved in grant writing. My commitment to a career as an independent investigator is underscored by my early career grant awards from the National Institutes of Health (5-year National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health K23, 2-year National Cancer Institute R21) and the American Cancer Society (1-year Institutional Research Grant, 4-year Research Scholar Grant). To date, I have served as lead PI of 5 clinical trials to adapt and test behavioral interventions for adult cancer survivors for managing fear of recurrence or insomnia. These trials follow adaptation frameworks (i.e., ORBIT, MOST) and incorporate experimental, survey, and qualitative methodologies. I have also been fortunate to collaborate on a variety of clinical trials as a co-investigator. **For information about currently funded projects, please email me directly at [email protected]. |