Upcoming Webinars

Description:
Over the last few years, several provocative publications have cast doubt upon the utility of neuroscientific methods to yield reliable and reproducible insights into the mechanisms of psychopathology, including eating disorders. Catastrophizing issues raised by these publications is understandable. However, there are many reasons to remain hopeful about the promise of neuroimaging and solutions do exist. Science is an inherently iterative process, and the scientific community has developed new analytic approaches and refined methods to address concerns raised by these publications. The AED Neuroimaging SIG is planning a series of events to foster dialogue around these issues. This webinar kicks off this series: we have invited two experts who use neuroscience-informed methods to study restrictive eating disorders and binge-type eating disorders to briefly discuss the cutting-edge methods used in their research and the reasons they remain optimistic about neuroimaging.

This webinar does not offer CE/CME credit.

Moderator:

Kelsey Hagan, SIG co-chair, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University

• Carrie McAdams, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical School

• Amanda Lyall, PhD, presenter, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School

Description:
Socioecological factors unique to sporting communities (gender stereotypes; athlete-coach dynamics; training regimens) can render girls and women more vulnerable to developing poor mental health, including body dissatisfaction, eating disorders and suicidal ideation, relative to their male peers. Sport communities have historically been resistant to academic collaborations, given the negative inferences about the communities’ contributions to these matters. However, recent call to actions from high profile women athletes about systematically addressing mental health, including body image and eating pathology suggests that sporting organizations and governing bodies are expected to collaborate. This webinar, offered by the Sport & Exercise SIG, has assembled experts on the intersection of body image, eating disorders, athletes and stakeholder management. Collectively, presenters will demonstrate how researchers and practitioners can collaborate with sport communities and harness their infrastructure to help, rather than hinder the prevention of body image and eating pathology concerns among girl and women athletes.

This webinar does not offer CE/CME credit.

Moderators:

Maddy Palermo, MA (S&E SIG Co-Chair)
Maddy is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of South Florida. She studies the risk and maintenance factors for disordered eating and exercise behaviors. Currently some of her research interests include: 1) examining identity as a risk factor for maladaptive exercise behaviors and 2) understanding the role peer exercise norms on the development of maladaptive exercise. 

Savannah Roberts, MA
Savannah R. Roberts is a 4th year PhD student in Clinical and Developmental Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, studying under the mentorship of Dr. Sophia Choukas-Bradley. Savannah is primarily interested in how sociocultural factors, such as gender socialization, impact the development of body image concerns and disordered eating during adolescence.

• Emily Matheson, PhD (S&E SIG Co-Chair)

 Dr Emily Matheson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR), and the Clinical and Project Specialist at EVERYBODY Consulting. In both roles, Emily works closely with community and industry partners to develop, evaluate and launch evidence-based mental health and well-being initiatives. In her research role at CAR, Emily leads global body image projects, with expertise in creating and evaluating interventions for digital and sporting contexts. She is currently the principal investigator on a large-scale, international project that aims to develop positive body image interventions for sport environments, with a specific focus on girl-identifying athletes and their coaches. In her role at EVERYBODY Consulting, Emily helps world leading brands and organizations with their impact journey, by helping them to develop and embed evidence-based mental health practices into their businesses. 

• Sasha Gorrell, PhD

Dr. Sasha Gorrell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Her clinical focus is in the treatment of adolescents with restrictive eating disorders, specifically in supporting their recovery in family-based treatment, and in intervention and prevention efforts that promote the well-being of athletes. Her current NIMH-funded research leverages behavioral data and neuroimaging to investigate specific neurobiological risk and maintenance factors for problematic exercise behavior in the context of eating pathology. Her overall research interests include exploration of biobehavioral mechanisms that promote our understanding of motivated behavior. This work includes better characterizing maintenance mechanisms and shared features of anxiety and eating disorders and using this knowledge to adapt and develop evidence-based treatment for eating disorders. 

• Rachael Flatt, MA

Rachael Flatt is a UNC-Chapel Hill Clinical Psychology doctoral candidate under the mentorship of Dr. Cynthia Bulik. Prior to transitioning to UNC, she served as the Programs Director at the Center for m2Health at Palo Alto University and worked on several projects through both Stanford University and Palo Alto University. She completed her undergraduate degree at Stanford University in 2015. She also placed 7th in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in women’s figure skating and was the 2010 US National Champion and the 2008 World Junior Champion. She continues to play an active role in the sports community by serving on several committees for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and US Figure Skating. Her long-term interests include furthering eating disorder research and digital mental health technology through program optimization and by selectively targeting and providing personalized treatment to at-risk and underserved populations. In addition, she hopes to develop tailored resources and adapt interventions for use with athletes, fully integrating her interests in technology and treatment, eating disorders, and athletics. 

• Tiffany Stewart, PhD

Dr. Stewart is the Dudley & Beverly Coates Endowed Professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, LA. Her clinical work and research program is dedicated to Translational Research - taking health behavior change programs from bench (science) to bedside (tools everyone can use), targeting body image, eating disorders, weight stigma, obesity, performance, and quality of life. Dr. Stewart has been a pioneer in the development and testing of e-health technologies and community participatory programs in order to bring prevention and treatment efforts to large populations in need. Dr. Stewart is also the Director of the Behavior Technology Laboratory: Health, Performance, and Resilience, at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Dr. Stewart leads a multi-disciplinary team that has spearheaded unique, large, multi-site programs and studies that have included the development and deployment of novel intervention programs and technologies for behavior change in high performance populations, namely, NCAA female athletes and U.S. Army Soldiers. Dr. Stewart has worked with female athletes since 2009 and is the recipient of a NIMH (R01) multi-site grant to investigate the efficacy of the Female Athlete Body Project (FAB). 

Description:
This presentation will provide an overview of long-lasting and severe manifestations of eating disorders. Several objectives will be emphasized, including: 

1. Descriptive and diagnostic issues associated with severe and enduring forms of eating disorders.
2. Clinical and scientifically informed approaches to treating individuals with long-lasting eating disorders.
3.  The future of care for individuals with serious and enduring eating disorders, including scientific innovation, proposed clinical models, and economic and institutional obstacles.

This webinar does not offer CE/CME credit. 

Moderator:

Melinda Parisi Cummings; Assistant Professor, Holy Family University

• Gail Kerver, PhD

Dr. Gail Kerver is a licensed psychologist and Assistant Scientist at the Sanford Center for Biobehavioral Research in Fargo, ND. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Kent State University. She completed a pre-doctoral APA-accredited internship at Hennepin Healthcare and a post-doctoral fellowship in the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) funded T32 Midwest Regional Postdoctoral Training Grant in Eating Disorders Research. Her research seeks to elucidate factors that maintain eating disorder psychopathology, including a focus on momentary predictors of binge eating behavior. She also has a strong interest in better understanding the development and course of disordered eating following bariatric surgery and how such eating behavior further impacts health- and weight-related outcomes after surgery. 

• Lauren Schafer, PhD

Dr. Lauren Schaefer is an Assistant Scientist and the Director of Education and Training at the Sanford Center for Biobehavioral Research in Fargo, ND. She is also a licensed psychologist working within the Sanford Center for Eating Disorders and Weight Management. Dr. Schaefer received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of South Florida. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders, and her post-doctoral fellowship on the NIMH-funded Midwest Regional T32 in Eating Disorders Research. Her research examines biological, psychological, and sociocultural risk and maintenance factors for eating disorders.

• Stephen Wonderlich, PhD

Dr. Wonderlich serves as Vice-President and Chief of Behavioral Health Research at Sanford Research and is the Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor, University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences. He has worked both clinically and scientifically in behavioral health for nearly 40 years. He has published widely in the literature. He currently sits on the Editorial Board for several professional journals, is a Past-President of the Academy for Eating Disorders and was a member of the Eating Disorder Workgroup for DSM-5. He helped to establish the Sanford Eating Disorder and Weight Management Center as well as the Sanford Treatment Collaborative for Traumatized Youth. He also serves as the Principal Investigator for the NIH Supported Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Eating Disorders at Sanford Health.