PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
JULIA M. HORMES, PH.D. Dr. Hormes is a clinical and health psychologist and the director of the Health Behaviors Laboratory at the University at Albany. Dr. Hormes’ research interests include (1) the psychology of human food choice, with a focus on the study of food addiction, food cravings (in particular during the perimenstrum, pregnancy and migraine prodrome), and food avoidance (e.g., of meat and other animal products), (2) interventions targeting diet and nutrition, and (3) non-substance/behavioral addictions, e.g., to online social networking and video game uses. Dr. Hormes is a licensed psychologist in New York State and her clinical interests are in addiction, HIV/AIDS, psycho-oncology, and eating disorders. Dr. Hormes holds a B.A. in psychology from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked with her graduate advisor Dr. Paul Rozin. She completed her clinical internship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS and continued on to a postdoctoral position at the NIAAA-funded Comprehensive Alcohol Research Center at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, LA. Dr. Hormes joined the clinical faculty at the University at Albany in 2012.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
ANNA LOVE, B.A. (first year doctoral student): Anna Love, B.S. (first year doctoral student): Anna graduated from the University of South Alabama with a BS in Biology, and a minor in psychology. During her time as an undergrad, she worked as an independent researcher in the Eating Behaviors Lab, with a predominant research focus of the potential maladaptive consequences of rigid healthy eating. Anna’s research interests include understanding barriers to healthy eating, as well as considering how health interventions can be developed that acknowledge and mitigate the risk of the development of disordered eating behaviors and cognitions.
KAYLA COSTELLO, B.A., M.Sc. (second year doctoral student): Kayla received her M.Sc. in psychology from the University College London with her thesis focused on adolescents with low-weight eating disorders. She then worked for two years in a residential clinic for adolescents with eating disorders and for three years as a research coordinator at the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders at Mount Sinai. Kayla's research interests are in the role of executive functioning and decision-making in anorexia nervosa.
SUSANA CRUZ GARCIA, B.A. (fourth year doctoral student): Susana received her B.A. in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice while also earning the Bernand Locke Award for outstanding achievement in psychology. She is currently a second-year doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at UAlbany. Her research agenda includes the study of mental illness and eating behaviors using a psycho-social perspective.
CHRISTINA SANZARI, M.A. (fourth year doctoral student): Christina graduated from Skidmore College in 2018 with a B.A. in Psychology. She then worked as a research assistant for two years in the Mood and Behavior Lab at Brown University, studying the risk factors and cognitive processes that influence suicidality in adolescents. Christina’s research interests include the psychosocial risk factors related to eating disorder development in adolescence, and maladaptive eating and health-related behaviors in athletes. Christina's Google Scholar Page
MCKENZIE MILLER, M.A. (fifth year doctoral student; on internship at Rogers Behavioral Health): McKenzie graduated from Michigan State University in 2018 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and an additional major in Psychology. After graduating, McKenzie worked as a research assistant at the UCSD Eating Disorders Center where she gained clinical experience as part of the one-week Intensive Family Treatment team. McKenzie's research interests include the neurobiology of eating disorders, and the relationship between athletics and eating pathology.
ARIELLE WOLINSKY, M.A. (seventh year doctoral student; on internship at Greater Hartford Clinical Psychology/VA Newington): Arielle Wolinsky received her BA in Psychology from Skidmore College in 2013 and her MA in Psychology from Rutgers University in 2016. Her primary clinical and research interests are in examining the role in which society (e.g. societal food norms, the current food system) influences the development of negative and positive attitudes towards food, and understanding how these attitudes impact the development and maintenance of eating pathology and associated health risks (e.g. obesity, diabetes). (Arielle's CV)
LAB ALUMNI
COURTNEY BREINER, Ph.D. (2023). Acceptability and Feasibility of ARFID-PTP: A Brief, Virtual, Parent-Training Intervention for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder in Children.
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Currently on postdoc at Columbia University (Center for Eating Disorders)
LAUREN BLAU, Ph.D. (2021). Feasibility of Acceptance-Based Health Coaching Targeting Food Cravings in Pregnancy.
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Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
RAE D. DRACH, Ph.D. (2021). Emotion Regulation and Executive Function: A Comparison of Collegiate Taekwondo Athletes, Other Athletes, and Non-Athletes.
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Licensed Clinical Psychologist, MindWell Psychology
SYDNEY HEISS, Ph.D. (2021). Mental Health in Vegans: The Importance of Accounting for Identities, Stereotypes, and Experiences of Discrimination.
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Associate Research Scientist in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine
JAIME A. COFFINO, MPH, PH.D. (2020). A Default Option for Health: Improving Nutrition within the Financial and Geographic Constraints of Food Insecurity.
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Research Fellow, New York University Langone Department of Population Health; Director, The Coffino Center
ELIZABETH PERSON RAFFANELLO, MPH, PH.D. (2019). An Expansion of a Model of Depression in Multiple Sclerosis: Emotion Regulation and Coping as Moderators of the Relationship between Functional Disability and Adjustment to Disease.
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Research Program Leader, Duke University
MARTHA A. NIEMIEC, PH.D. (2019). The Cognitive and Contextual Underpinning of Food Cravings: A Multi-Method Exploration.
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Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Beth Israel Lahey Health
NATALIA C. ORLOFF, PH.D. (2018). Cravings and Gestational Weight Gain: Predictors of Weight-Related Health in Pregnancy and the Post-Partum
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Clinical Instructor, Equip (previously Research Psychologist, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)
ALISON RIVERS, PH.D. (2016). Intersecting Roles and Interactional Influences: Protective Psychosocial Factors and Trauma in Multiple Sclerosis Spousal/Partner Caregivers.
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Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Westchester Anxiety Treatment Psychological Services