Principal Investigator
Julia M. Hormes, Ph.D.
Dr. Hormes is a clinical and health psychologist and the director of the Health Behaviors Laboratory. 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. Dr. Hormes is a licensed psychologist in New York State.
Current Graduate Students
Grace Haase, M.A.
3rd Year
Grace graduated from Amherst College in 2021 with a B.A. in Psychology. She then worked for three years at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she coordinated a clinical treatment trial examining anorexia nervosa in youth. Grace’s research interests include understanding risk and maintenance factors of disordered eating to identify potential treatment targets.
Jennifer White, M.A.
3rd Year
Jennifer graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She worked as a research assistant at the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders (CEED) in Chapel Hill conducting clinical trial study visits examining hormones and binge eating and recruiting participants for large-scale genetic research studies. Jennifer's research interests include examining transdiagnostic risk and maintenance factors and how they vary across different racial and gender groups.
Emily Woodworth, M.A.
3rd Year
Emily graduated from the University of Virginia in 2021 with a BA in psychology and a minor in health and wellbeing. She then worked for three years as a clinical research coordinator in the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research at Massachusetts General Hospital. Emily's research interests are in the perinatal period with a focus on body image, disordered eating, and other health behaviors.
Anna Love, M.A.
4th Year
Anna graduated from the University of South Alabama with a B.S. 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 primary research interests include understanding barriers to healthy eating and how those barriers might contribute to the development of disordered eating, and promoting positive body image development in young children.
Kayla Costello, M.Sc.
5th Year (on internship)
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.
Lab Alumni
Health Behaviors Lab students have completed predoctoral internships and postdoctoral fellowships at Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Yale, NYU, University of Rochester, UC San Diego/San Diego VA Healthcare System, Greater Hartford Clinical Psychology Internship Consortium/VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Geisinger Health System, Albany Medical Center, and Mount Sinai Medical Center
2025
Susana Cruz Garcia, Ph.D.
A Strength-Based Approach to Understanding the Impact of Experiences of Discrimination Related to Identity-Based Stressors on Disordered Eating Among a Sample of Sexual and Gender Diverse Individuals. College of Arts and Sciences
Postdoctoral Fellow, Emory University
2025
Christina Sanzari, Ph.D.
Integration of Theoretical Frameworks for Problematic Exercise: Toward a Comprehensive Model of Maladaptive and Adaptive Exercise
Postdoctoral Fellow, Albany Medical Center
2024
McKenzie Miller, Ph.D.
The Transdiagnostic Role and Measurement of Cognitive Inflexibility Across Understudied Eating Disorder Groups: A Multi-Method Investigation
Psychologist, Pacific Anxiety Group (previously postdoctoral Fellow, Albany Medical Center)
2024
Arielle Wolinsky, Ph.D.
Feasibility and Acceptability of a Self-Paced, Online Workshop Targeting Self-Compassion Skills for Emerging Adults with Disordered Eating
Postdoctoral Fellow, MindWell
2023
Courtney Breiner, Ph.D.
Acceptability and Feasibility of ARFID-PTP: A Brief, Virtual, Parent-Training Intervention for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder in Children
Pediatric Psychologist, Children's Hospital of Atlanta/Emory University (previously postdoctoral Fellow, Virginia Commonwealth University; postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University Center for Eating Disorders)
2021
Lauren Blau, Ph.D.
Feasibility of Acceptance-Based Health Coaching Targeting Food Cravings in Pregnancy
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
2021
Rae D. Drach, Ph.D.
Emotion Regulation and Executive Function: A Comparison of Collegiate Taekwondo Athletes, Other Athletes, and Non-Athletes
Private Practice
2021
Sydney Yurkow (Heiss), Ph.D.
Mental Health in Vegans: The Importance of Accounting for Identities, Stereotypes, and Experiences of Discrimination
Associate Research Scientist in Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine
2020
Jaime Coffino, Ph.D.
A Default Option for Health: Improving Nutrition within the Financial and Geographic Constraints of Food Insecurity
Research Fellow, New York University Langone Department of Population Health; Director, The Coffino Center
2019
Martha A. Niemiec, Ph.D.
The Cognitive and Contextual Underpinning of Food Cravings: A Multi-Method Exploration
Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Beth Israel Lahey Health
2019
Elizabeth Person Raffanello, Ph.D.
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
Research Program Leader, Duke University
2016
Alison Rivers, Ph.D.
Intersecting Roles and Interactional Influences: Protective Psychosocial Factors and Trauma in Multiple Sclerosis Spousal/Partner Caregivers
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Westchester Anxiety Treatment Psychological Services
2018
Natalia C. Orloff, Ph.D.
Cravings and Gestational Weight Gain: Predictors of Weight-Related Health in Pregnancy and the Post-Partum
Clinical Instructor, Equip (previously Research Psychologist, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)