OUR TEAM
Faculty
Todd J. Farchione, Ph.D.
Dr. Farchione is a Research Full Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. He is the director of the TREND-UP Lab at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders which focuses on identifying higher-order, functional mechanisms associated with the development and maintenance of emotional disorders and the dissemination of improved psychological treatments for these disorders. Dr. Farchione is a co-developer of the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP) and has substantially contributed to evaluating and refining the protocol since its inception. He has also published extensively on the UP and the nature and treatment of emotional disorders in general.
David H. Barlow, Ph.D., ABPP
Dr. Barlow is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Founder and Director Emeritus of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Vermont in 1969 and has published over 650 articles and chapters and over 90 books mostly in the area of the nature and treatment of emotional disorders. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Distinguished Scientific Award for Applications of Psychology from the American Psychological Association. For more information, visit: Dr. Barlow’s CARD website
Laura J. Long, Ph.D.
Laura is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. Her research focuses on resilience and recovery from anxiety, depression, trauma, and health-related challenges. She is interested in how protective factors such as hope, optimism, and self-efficacy function as mechanisms of change within transdiagnostic CBT (including digital protocols) and leveraging these insights to refine and expand CBT protocols to better support lasting recovery, positive emotion regulation, and flourishing. Her emerging effectiveness–implementation work aims to adapt and test these interventions in scalable formats and community-embedded delivery models to enhance their reach, equity, and real-world impact. Across these lines of inquiry, she uses global, multi-site collaborations and longitudinal, multimethod designs to identify targets that can be deliberately trained in treatment (i.e., mediators and moderators).
Post-Doctoral Associates and Fellows
Alexander Williams, Ph.D.
Alex is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. His research focuses on the development, maintenance, and prevention/treatment of emotional disorders. Alex is also interested in how hierarchical approaches and related methods can enhance the rigor of psychopathology research. An emerging line of work centers on the possible benefits of mindfulness training in reducing vulnerability to emotional disorders. Alex received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University and completed his predoctoral internship at the VA Puget Sound, Seattle. To learn more about Alex, visit his website: alwilliams.io
Doctoral Students
Daniella Spencer-Laitt, M.A.
Danni Spencer-Laitt is a fifth-year clinical psychology doctoral student in the TREND-UP lab. She holds a BA and LLB from the University of Western Australia, an MSW from Columbia University, and an MA in psychology from Boston University. Her research focuses on emotion regulation, with particular emphasis on positive and mixed (or “bittersweet”) emotional experiences in the context of grief. She is particularly interested in how the coexistence of positive and negative emotions can facilitate adaptation to loss and other traumatic stressors, and how difficulties in accessing or sustaining such experiences may contribute to Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD). Ultimately, her goal is to refine and evaluate treatments for PGD that not only alleviate symptom burden but also foster psychological flourishing.
Julián D. Moreno-Villamizar, M.A.
Julián Moreno is a third-year doctoral student in the TREND-UP Lab. He received his B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Portuguese from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2016, and his M.Sc. in Clinical and Health Psychology from the same institution in 2018. His research focuses on transdiagnostic mechanisms of emotional disorders, the optimization and dissemination of evidence-based treatments, and the application of implementation-science strategies to expand access to high-quality mental health care in low- and middle-income countries. He is particularly interested in digital and telemedicine-delivered CBT, AI-assisted implementation tools, and understanding within-person processes of change through advanced statistical models.
Before joining the TREND-UP Lab, Julián worked as an Assistant Professor at Universidad de La Sabana in Colombia, where he taught graduate courses in clinical psychology and supervised students at university clinic. He also served as the Clinical Psychology Lab Manager at Universidad de los Andes and contributed to multiple randomized clinical trials, global mental-health initiatives, and culturally adapted CBT programs with different NGOs. His ongoing projects at Boston University include the implementation and evaluation of the Unified Protocol across community, international, and medical settings, as well as mentoring students in clinical research.
Audrey Hey, M.A.
Audrey Hey is a second-year doctoral student in the TREND-UP Lab. She completed her undergraduate studies at Centre College, earning a BS in psychology in 2020. Prior to graduate school, Audrey worked as a senior youth counselor and then as a clinical research coordinator, and also earned an MA in psychology at BU in 2022. Audrey’s primary research interests lie in transdiagnostic treatments for anxiety and mood disorders. Specifically, she is fascinated by positive psychology interventions that promote well-being, such as gratitude and savoring techniques. She is eager to investigate the effectiveness of these interventions across diverse cultures and contexts.
Research Coordinators
Camielle Sandage, B.A.
Volunteers
Jackson Slowcum, B.A.
Mia Djafari
Previous Lab Members
Maya Nauphal, Ph.D.
Maya completed her Ph.D. at the TREND-UP Lab. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. Prior to joining the TREND-UP Lab, she worked as a clinical research coordinator at the Depression Clinical and Research Program in Massachusetts General Hospital. Her interests include better understanding (with the hopes of modifying) factors that influence perceptions of treatment and mental illness, internalized stigma, and treatment seeking behaviors. She is also interested in the development and dissemination of emotion-focused interventions to prevent the onset of mood and anxiety disorders among adolescents and young adults. Email Maya at mnauphal@bu.edu or find her on Twitter @MayaNauphal.
Nicole Cardona, Ph.D.
Nicole completed her Ph.D at the TREND-UP Lab. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Health: Science, Society, and Policy from Brandeis University in 2015. Prior to joining the TREND-UP Lab, Nicole worked as a clinical & research assistant at the Boston Child Study Center, and as a counselor within McLean Hospital’s adolescent DBT continuum. She has also worked as a research assistant at Brandeis’ Sex, Development, and Aggression Lab and McLean Hospital’s Laboratory for the Study of Adult Development. Nicole is primarily interested in the relationships among emotional avoidance, borderline personality symptoms, and life-threatening behavior. She is also interested in increasing the accessibility of effective, evidence-based treatment for underserved populations. Email Nicole at ncardona@bu.edu.
Lauren Woodard, B.A.
Lauren is the former Research and Administrative Assistant to Dr. Barlow. She graduated from the University of Vermont in May of 2020 with a B.A. in psychological science. As an undergraduate, Lauren worked in the learning theory lab of Dr. Mark Bouton and completed an honors thesis on habit development. She also worked in Dr. Kelly Rohan’s clinical psychology lab, on a study investigating the relative effects of CBT and light therapy in the treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Her research interests in include the underlying mechanisms of anxiety and related disorders, as well as the dissemination of evidence-based treatments.
Andrew Curreri, Ph.D.
Andrew is a sixth-year doctoral student in the TREND-UP Lab. He is interested in identifying transdiagnostic mechanisms of change in psychotherapy with the goal of optimizing treatment delivery, focusing on individual-level assessment. He is also interested in repetitive negative thinking, such as worry and rumination, as a transdiagnostic process contributing to the onset and course of emotional disorders. Andrew graduated from Boston University in 2014 with a B.A. in psychology and worked as a research technician at the National Center for PTSD at the VA Boston Healthcare System prior to joining the TREND-UP Lab. Email Andrew at acurreri@bu.edu or follow him on Twitter @AndrewCurreri.
Brittany Woods, Ph.D.
Brittany is a fifth-year doctoral student in the and TREND-UP Lab. She received her BS in Psychology from Georgia Southern University and MA in Psychology from BU, and she worked as a research assistant at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh. Generally, her research interests are in the transdiagnostic mechanisms underlying the maintenance and treatment of emotional disorders. In particular, she is interested in how elements of treatment interact to improve symptoms, and at which point in treatment they produce greatest change.
Elizabeth H. Eustis, Ph.D.
Dr. Eustis is currently a Clinical Development Lead at Big Health and is an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. She was previously a Research Assistant Professor at Boston University and the Director of the Unified Protocol Institute. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston and completed her pre-doctoral internship at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Dr. Eustis completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University. Dr. Eustis’ current research focuses on digital therapeutics as a way to increase access to evidence-based care.
Julianne Wilner Tirpak, Ph.D.
Julianne is a graduate of the TREND-UP lab. After receiving her B.A. in psychology from Boston University in 2013, she worked as a clinical research coordinator in Behavioral Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research focuses on the identification of transdiagnostic mechanisms that maintain symptoms across the range of emotional disorders and the development and evaluation of treatment directly targeting these mechanisms. She is particularly interested in higher-risk behavioral presentations of emotional disorders (e.g., suicidal thoughts and behaviors, non-suicidal self-injury, interpersonal conflict), and is currently completing a mechanistic evaluation of different theories of borderline personality disorder. Julianne completed her internship at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
Erin Ward-Ciesielski, Ph.D.
Dr. Ward-Ciesielski received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Washington and completed her pre-doctoral internship training at the University of Mississippi Medical Center & G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center Consortium. Her primary research interests include developing and evaluating brief, transdiagnostic interventions for suicidal individuals, facilitating treatment seeking and engagement, and improving research approaches when working with suicidal populations.
Shannon Sauer-Zavala, Ph.D.
Dr. Sauer-Zavala is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky (UK) and is the founding Director of Clinical Services at the UK Clinic for Emotional Health. Dr. Sauer-Zavala received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from UK in 2011; she completed her predoctoral internship at Duke University Medical Center and her postdoctoral fellowship at Boston University. She then spent seven years on the faculty in BU’s Department of Psychological and Brain Science before returning home to UK in 2019. Her research is focused on exploring emotion-focused mechanisms that maintain psychological symptoms and using this information to develop more targeted, easily-disseminated intervention strategies. Her research has been supported by NIMH, NIAAA, Templeton Foundation, the Center for Implementation and Improvement Sciences, and the Canadian Institute of Health Research. Dr. Sauer-Zavala has co-authored over 110 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and books. In particular, she is a co-developer of the Unified Protocol and the founding director of the Unified Protocol Institute.
Stephanie Jarvi Steele, Ph.D.
Dr. Steele is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Smith College. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Suffolk University and completed her predoctoral clinical internship at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, followed by a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship in the Transdiagnostic Treatment Lab at Boston University. Currently, Dr. Steele runs the Behavioral Assessment of Self-Injury Lab (BASIL) at Smith where she is conducting research on various transdiagnostic risk factors for self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs), and engaging in regular mentorship of undergraduate student research on these and related topics. Dr. Steele teaches research methods, abnormal psychology, and an advanced seminar on high-risk behaviors in psychopathology, and is a licensed clinical psychologist in Massachusetts.
Amantia Ametaj, Ph.D.
Dr. Ametaj is a graduate of the Transdiagnostic Treatment Lab. Her work focuses on global mental health, including improving the detection of and increasing access to treatments for common mental health disorders, such as traumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive disorders, in low resourced settings. Dr. Ametaj completed her doctorate at Boston University and is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Clair Cassiello, Ph.D.
Dr. Robbins graduated from the Transdiagnostic Treatment Lab in 2019. As part of her work at BU, she specialized in the application of the UP to dysregulated anger. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Misophonia and Emotion Regulation at Duke University Medical Center. As a postdoc, she explored the application of the UP for patients with misophonia. Dr. Robbins is a licensed clinical psychologist and currently works at Triangle Area Psychology Clinic in Durham, NC. She provides clinical services to adults and adolescents; she also trains therapists to deliver the UP. She is co-director of the Unified Protocol Institute.
Kate Bentley, Ph.D.
Kate Bentley, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. She is Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Program in the MGH Center for Precision Psychiatry. Dr. Bentley completed her PhD in clinical psychology at Boston University and her predoctoral internship in the MGH cognitive-behavioral therapy track. Her research focuses on the prediction and prevention of suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, and she currently holds a five-year National Institute of Mental Health career development award that focuses on using mobile devices to improve the short-term prediction of suicide risk following psychiatric hospitalization. She also has other ongoing projects focused on developing, evaluating and implementing scalable, transdiagnostic interventions for reducing suicide risk.
James F. Boswell, Ph.D.
Dr. James Boswell is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director at the University at Albany, SUNY. He received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University. He completed his predoctoral internship at Brown University Medical School. Dr. Boswell was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CARD), with a primary focus on the Unified Protocol for the Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders. He is a certified UP trainer. Dr. Boswell’s research and scholarly interests include psychotherapy process and outcome, measurement-based care, and practice-oriented research.
Matthew Gallagher, Ph.D.
Dr. Gallagher is currently Professor of Psychology at the University of Houston. He completed his doctorate in Clinical and Quantitative Psychology from the University of Kansas and was a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant professor at CARD with the TREND-UP and CODA labs. His research focuses on studying the efficacy of the UP for PTSD and anxiety disorders in diverse populations as well as examining how positive thinking promotes well-being and provides resilience for PTSD and anxiety disorders. He is also very interested in quantitative methods and regularly serves as a biostatistician for clinical trials.
Brittany Jaso, Ph.D.
Dr. Jaso is currently a research manager for the practice research network at Reliant Medical Group. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Miami and completed her pre-doctoral internship at the University of Miami Counseling Center. Prior to attending graduate school, she was a research assistant in the Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Jaso was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University. Dr. Jaso’s current research focuses on digital therapeutics as a way to increase access to evidence-based care.