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Our Team

The consortium consists of three committees to ensure the consistency and quality of the projects conducted by the working groups: the Board of Directors, the Research Steering Committee, and the Rigor and Reproducibility Committee.

Board of Directors

The board of directors provides strategic leadership and oversight for the recruitment of members, committee activities, and liaison with the SOBC Coordinating Center. It comprises 3 dedicated members with relevant mechanistic research expertise.

Founder of MBRC

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Michael W. Otto, PhD

Boston University

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Boston, MA

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Dr. Otto is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Translational Research Lab at Boston University. He is also Co-Investigator with the Resource and Coordinating Center of the NIH SOBC program. Dr. Otto investigates novel cognitive-behavioral interventions for a wide variety of clinical conditions. His focus on hard-to-treat conditions and principles underlying behavior-change failures extends to health behavior promotion, including investigations of addictive behaviors, medication adherence, sleep, and exercise. Dr. Otto has authored over 500 publications across his research interests and has been repeatedly honored by professional organizations for his academic, mentoring, and service contributions to the field.

Board Member

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Donald Edmondson, PhD

Columbia University Medical Center

Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health

New York, NY

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Dr. Edmondson is an Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), and Director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health. He is currently the PI of Resource and Coordinating Center of the NIH Science of Behavior Change Program, to promote uptake of the experimental medicine approach to identifying and measuring underlying mechanisms of behavior change in behavioral science. His research on stress, health behaviors, and cardiovascular risk has been recognized with awards from major psychology and behavioral medicine societies, and featured in the New York Times, ABC Nightly News, CBS This Morning, and other outlets.

Founder of ETC

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Jasper A. J. Smits, PhD

University of Texas at Austin

Anxiety and Health Behaviors Lab

Austin, TX

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Jasper A. Smits, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Anxiety & Health Behaviors Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin. He specializes in the development and evaluation of behavioral interventions for anxiety and related disorders. With respect to health behaviors, he has been involved in research testing whether aerobic training can provide learning experiences (e.g., feeling safe around bodily sensations, reappraisal of stressors) essential to attaining patients’ treatment goals. Following up on initial successes in this area among adults with anxiety motivated to quit smoking, he has developed a YMCA exercise-based smoking cessation intervention that is currently undergoing evaluation. Dr. Smits has authored over 250 publications, frequently provides workshops on exercise for mental health, and maintains an active private practice.

Research Steering Committee

The Research Steering Committee (RSC) provides scientific leadership and oversight to the research working groups to aid in developing new projects and to review and approve proposals. It comprises 5 members with relevant expertise relevant to the identification and study of key mechanisms underlying successful health behavior change.

Committee Member

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Jeffrey Birk, PhD

Columbia University Medical Center

Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health

New York, NY

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Dr. Birk is an Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health. His research focuses on the influence of emotions and their regulation on cardiovascular health. He conducts research investigating how negative emotions that arise due to serious medical conditions may reduce patients’ engagement in health behaviors. Additional research concerns the health effects of different strategies for regulating emotion. For example, Dr. Birk and colleagues investigate how the occurrence and duration of perseverative thoughts may contribute to heightened blood pressure by cognitively prolonging the stress response. A third research goal is to understand the behavioral and physiological pathways by which depression and post-traumatic stress disorder have adverse effects on long-term health outcomes.

Founder of MBRC

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Michael W. Otto, PhD

Boston University

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Boston, MA

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Rigor & Reproducibility Committee

The Rigor and Reproducibility Committee (RRC) is responsible for guiding intervention, assessment, and data analysis protocols for proposed research projects by developing research project guidelines, developing and sharing SOBC tools that support measurement and treatment procedures, and consulting on data analysis for projects. It is comprised by members with relevant expertise in mechanistic behavioral studies and their analysis.

Committee Member

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Talea Cornelius, PhD

Columbia University Medical Center

Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health

New York, NY

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Dr. Cornelius conducts research focused on understanding health behaviors in the social context in which they are performed. In particular, her work explores processes of health-related power and influence, interdependence in change over time, and how partner support can both facilitate and/or undermine health-promoting behaviors. Recent projects include an examination of how the presence of close others (i.e., a spouse/partner, a child) in the Emergency Department (ED) impacts patients' ED experience, the effect of romantic partners on blood pressure both short and long term, and a qualitative study describing couples' experiences following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Dr. Cornelius is an SOBC coordinating center Co-Investigator, and oversees the scientific development of the SOBC Measures Repository and works with external scientists for Repository engagement and data processes.

Committee Member

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Qimin Liu, PhD

Boston University

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Boston, MA

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Dr. Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University, where he leads the Quantitative Psychopathology Lab. His research focuses on the intersection of affective psychopathology, statistical methods, and health equity. In additional, Dr. Liu develops and applies novel statistical and machine learning methods and software for social, behavioral, and psychiatric data. In addition to his research, he serves as statistician on projects across diverse topics.

Committee Member

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Santiago Papini, PhD

University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

College of Social Sciences

Mānoa, Hawai'i

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Dr. Papini is Assistant Professor in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaii where he directs the Targeted Interventions Lab. His core interests include the combination of translational and computational approaches to develop and evaluate targeted intervention strategies for addiction, anxiety, and stress-related psychopathology, as well as prevention strategies for these conditions. Dr. Papini serves as a statistical consultant for clinical research studies. He also helps direct the Rigor and Reproducibility Committee for the Exposure Therapy Consortium.