scientific advisory board.
Board Member & CEO
Lamia El-Sadek, Ph.D.
Dr. Lamia El-Sadek is an experienced strategist, financial executive, international activist, and movement leader, with a background in Corporate Business Development and Finance, and a passion for human rights. Dr. El-Sadek’s humanitarian work has taken her throughout Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and Europe on issues ranging from economic development, forcibly displaced & refugee rights, gender equity, and youth empowerment.
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Previously, as Executive Director of Dignity & Power Now, a Los Angeles-based grassroots prison abolition and community justice organization, she drastically increased the organization’s operating budget and was part of a coalition that successfully stopped a $3.5 billion jail plan for the city. Dr. El-Sadek began her career as a Developer at IBM. Over the next several years, she gained extensive international business and finance experience in multinational corporations, including as the Regional Associate Finance Director for PepsiCoInternational, based in Dubai, UAE.
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Following the Arab Spring, Dr. El-Sadek received an invitation to be one of the advisors of the President of Egypt on women’s issues, particularly social and economic empowerment of women and, in collaboration with various human rights organizations, Dr. El-Sadek worked on a proposed rights-based new constitution for Egypt. In 2010, she was among an international humanitarian delegation to Gaza. In 2016 and 2017, Dr. El-Sadek was a speaker at the United Nations CSW on ‘Economic Empowerment and Equity of Marginalized Groups’ globally.
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Dr.Lamia El-Sadek studied business management and information technology and has a Masters in Training and Development from North Carolina State University.
She holds a Ph.D. in Global Leadership from Indiana Institute of Technology, and has served on the Boards of Aythos, Dignity and PowerNow, NFCC International, and Casa Milagro Foundation. She co-authored a book on Global and Cross-Cultural Leadership and is currently working on a book outlining the parallels between recent global revolutions, such as the Arab Spring, and social movements within the U.S.
Dr.El-Sadek most recently held the position of Executive Director of both the March For Our Lives Action Fund and the March For Our Lives Foundation.
President & SAB Chair
John Piacentini, Ph.D., ABPP
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Chief of Child Psychology, Department of Psychiatry
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Director, Center for Child Anxiety, Resilience, Education and Support (CARES)
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Director, Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program
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UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
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Dr. John Piacentini is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Chief of Child Psychology (in Medical Psychology) in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Semel Institute where he directs the Child OCD, Anxiety and Tic Disorders Program, the Center for Child Anxiety, Resilience, Education and Support (CARES), and Tourette Association of America Center of Excellence. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia and completed post-doctoral training and was a faculty member at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University. A board-certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist, his work focuses on the development and dissemination of science-based individual- and family-based treatments for youth with BFRBs, OCD, tic, and anxiety disorders. Through the UCLA CARES Center, Dr. Piacentini and his team have developed a number of community-based programs aimed at preventing childhood anxiety disorders. He has authored over 300 scientific publications, including seven books, and his research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, International OCD Foundation, Tourette Association of America, TLC Foundation for BFRBs, and other leading foundations and philanthropic organizations. Dr. Piacentini is also a past-president of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) and the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He is a frequent lecturer and with his team, has trained hundreds of mental health clinicians in cognitive-behavior therapy and other evidence-based treatments and provided care to over 1000 children, adolescents, and their families.
Vice President & SAB Vice Chair
Suzanne Mouton-Odum, Ph.D.
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Psychology Houston, PC
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Suzanne Mouton-Odum, Ph.D., is a psychologist in private practice in Houston, Texas. She obtained her doctoral degree from the University of Houston in Counseling Psychology and completed her residency in Clinical Psychology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.
She has treated people with hair pulling and other body-focused repetitive behaviors since 1993, and has been a member of TLC's Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board since 2001.
Dr. Mouton-Odum has published several books on trichotillomania, including A Parent Guide to Hair Pulling Disorder: Effective Strategies for Parents of Children with Trichotillomania. She presents at national conferences on body-focused repetitive behaviors and their treatment. She is the co-owner and lead developer of the only interactive, online website for trichotillomania, StopPulling.com, and for skin picking disorder, StopPicking.com.
Secretary & SAB Secretary
Fred Penzel, Ph.D.
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Western Suffolk Psychological Services
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Dr. Fred Penzel is a licensed psychologist who has specialized in the treatment of trichotillomania and obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD) since 1982. He is the executive director of Western Suffolk Psychological Services in Huntington, Long Island, New York, a private treatment group specializing in trichotillomania and OCD-related problems,
Dr. Penzel is a founding member of TLC's Scientific Advisory Board and a senior faculty member of TLC's Professional Training Institute.
Dr. Penzel is the author of The Hair Pulling Problem and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders: A Complete Guide To Getting Well And Staying Well, a self-help work covering trichotillomania and other OCD spectrum disorders.
Board Member
Michael H. Bloch, MD, M.S.
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Associate Professor, Yale Child Study Center
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Dr. Bloch graduated from Yale School of Medicine and completed his child and adult psychiatry training at Yale. He is an Associate Professor at the Yale Child Study Center.
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His research focuses on evidence-based medicine and developing improved treatments for individuals with mental illness across the lifespan using clinical trials and meta-analysis. His clinical and research interests concentrate on body-focused repetitive behaviors, depression, anxiety, Tourette syndrome, ADHD, and OCD across the lifespan.
He has published over 125 peer-reviewed manuscripts and was co-editor of the fifth edition of Lewis’s Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, and Depression and Anxiety. Dr. Bloch treats and evaluates children with anxiety, depression, TS, OCD, ADHD, and BFRBs as part of the Yale Child Study Center TS/OCD clinic.
Board Member
Sam Chamberlain, MB/BChir, Ph.D., MRCPsych
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Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Southampton
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Sam Chamberlain is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Southampton in Southampton, England, and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. Prof Chamberlain’s research focuses on the neurobiology and treatment of impulsive, compulsive, and behaviourally-addictive disorders. In particular, the research involves three main aims: (1) developing and validating clinical tools; (2) measuring cognitive problems and brain circuits that contribute (including vulnerability markers); and (3) improving existing treatments and developing new ones.
He leads a Specialist NHS clinical service for Impulsive and Compulsive Disorders, and has published widely about trichotillomania and skin-picking disorder. Prof Chamberlain is co-founder of the National UK Research Network on Behavioural Addictions (NUK-BA).
Board Member
Darin Dougherty, MD, MSc
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Director, Neurotherapeutics Division, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Associate Director, Psychiatric Neuroimaging Program, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Director, Mood Disorders Section, Psychiatric Neuroimaging Program, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Director of Medical Education, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Co-Director, Trichotillomania Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
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Dr. Darin Dougherty received his MD from the University of Illinois and completed his residency in general psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. He serves on the scientific advisory boards for the TLC, Anxiety Disorders Association of America, and the International Obsessive Compulsive Foundation. He also serves on the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatric Neurosurgery Committee.
Dr. Dougherty has given over 100 invited lectures and presentations, co-authored over 40 original articles in peer-reviewed journals, over 40 book chapters and review articles, and has co-edited two books on neuroimaging. In 2003, Dr. Dougherty was awarded a NARSAD Young Investigator Award. In 2005, he was named one of the Future Leaders in Psychiatry.
Currently Dr. Dougherty is the Principal Investigator or co-Principal Investigator on several government and industry-funded studies investigating neuroimaging and medication and neurosurgery treatments of OCD and mood disorders. Dr. Dougherty's research interests include neuroimaging, neurobiology, psychopharmacology, and neurotherapeutic (device and/or surgical) interventions for the treatment of treatment-refractory psychiatric illness.
Board Member
Christopher Flessner, Ph.D.
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Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Kent State University
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Dr. Christopher Flessner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University and Director of the Child Anxiety Research(CARe) Program. He earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Flessner completed his clinical internship and postdoctoral training in Child Mental Health at Brown Medical School.
Dr. Flessner’s clinical and research interests focus on understanding risk factors for the development and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), other anxiety disorders, hair pulling disorder (trichotillomania), and tic disorders (i.e., Tourette syndrome) in children. In turn, he is interested in applying this knowledge towards the development of better treatments for children and their families afflicted with these disorders.
Board Member
Martin Franklin, Ph.D.
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Director, Child and Adolescent OCD, Tic, Trich & Anxiety Group (COTTAGe), Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
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Associate Professor, Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
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Martin Franklin, Ph.D., is Clinical Director of Rogers Behavioral Health’s Philadelphia site and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He has devoted the last three decades to understanding the phenomenology and treatment of OCD, anxiety, and related conditions across the developmental spectrum, and is one of the world’s leading experts in cognitive behavioral treatments for these disorders. He received continuous funding from the NIMH for almost twenty years to study the efficacy of treatments for pediatric OCD in particular. His recent treatment manual from Guilford Press, Franklin, Freeman, & March (2019), Treating OCD in Children and Adolescents: A Cognitive Behavioral Approach, is one of over 230 scientific papers, chapters, and books he has published.
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Dr. Martin Franklin received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Rhode Island. He has devoted his career to the study of anxiety and body-focused repetitive behaviors, such as chronic tic disorders and trichotillomania, in children and adults. His clinical and research careers have centered on these disorders, with an emphasis on developing and disseminating effective treatments.
Dr. Franklin has published theoretical, clinical and empirical papers and chapters, as well as treatment manuals. Currently, Dr. Franklin is a principal investigator of several multicenter studies funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, including an examination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy augmentation in Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors partial responders as well as an examination of the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for very young children with OCD. As the principal investigator on these multicenter studies, Dr. Franklin is a leading member of the Pediatric OCD Study team (POTS). The POTS team has set the precedent for the development of new practice guidelines for the treatment of OCD in youth through these momentous research projects.
In addition, Dr. Franklin piloted a study of habit reversal training (HRT) for tic disorders in adolescents and young adults funded by the Tourette Syndrome Association. He was central to the Trichotillomania Impact Project, a web-based exploration of phenomenology, functional impairment, and treatment utilization that reached over 1,600 individuals.
Board Member
Joseph Garner, Ph.D.
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Professor, Department of Comparative Medicine, Stanford University
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Courtesy Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
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Dr. Joseph Garner received his doctoral degree from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, Great Britain, where he studied the developmental neuroethology of stereotypies in captive animals. His postdoctoral research in animal behavior and well-being was undertaken at UC Davis. He served as an Assistant and an Associate Professor of animal behavior and well-being in the Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University, where he also held a courtesy appointment in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.
Dr. Garner joined the Department of Comparative Medicine at Stanford in 2011. Dr. Garner's research interests include the development of refined methods in behavioral research; abnormal behaviors in animals (including barbering and ulcerative dermatitis) and their relationships with abnormal behaviors in humans; mouse well-being and enrichment; and the scientific impact of well-being problems in lab animals.
Dr. Garner serves, or has served, as a council member for the International Society for Applied Ethology, an editor for Applied Animal Behavior Science, a special topics section editor for the Journal of Animal Science, on the AAALAC Board of Trustees, on the SCAW Board of Trustees and on the TLC Scientific Advisory Board.
Board Member
Jon E. Grant, MD, JD, MPH
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Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience,
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University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
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Dr. Jon Grant is a board-certified psychiatrist, professor and researcher. He completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan, a master's degree at the University of Chicago, a law degree from Cornell University, a medical degree from Brown University, and a masters degree in public health from Harvard University.
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Dr. Grant has written over 400 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on the phenomenology and pharmacological management of impulse control disorders, particularly pathological gambling, kleptomania, and grooming disorders. He is the author of Stop Me Because I Can't Stop Myself, a book on impulse control disorders (co-authored with Dr. Suck Won Kim), and co-editor (along with Marc Potenza) of two books published by the American Psychiatric Association, Pathological Gambling: A Clinical Guide to Treatment and A Textbook of Men's Mental Health.
Dr. Grant's research is funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health.
Board Member
Ruth Golomb, M.Ed., LCPC
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Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington, Silver Spring, MD
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Ruth Goldfinger Golomb, M.Ed., LCPC, is a senior clinician, supervisor, and co-director of the doctoral training program at the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington, where she has worked since the mid-1980s. Ms. Golomb specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adults. She has conducted numerous workshops and seminars, and participated as an expert in panel discussions covering many topics, including Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, trichotillomania, and managing anxiety disorders in the classroom.
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In addition to publishing articles for professional journals and newsletters, Ms. Golomb is an author of The Hair Pulling 'Habit' and You: How to Solve the Trichotillomania Puzzle, a book describing the comprehensive treatment of trichotillomania in children, and A Parent Guide to Hair Pulling Disorder: Effective Strategies for Parents of Children with Trichotillomania.
Board Member
David A. F. Haaga, Ph.D.
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Professor and Chair of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC
David A. F. Haaga, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of Psychology at American University, where his research focuses on trichotillomania, cigarette smoking cessation, and cognitive behavior therapy more generally.
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He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1988 from the University of Southern California. He serves as associate editor of Cognitive Therapy and Research and was formerly editor of Behavior Therapy. He is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Dr. Haaga first became interested in studying trichotillomania by way of his clinical supervision experiences in a psychotherapy training clinic. His research on the topic has been supported by The TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors and by NIMH. He has published on a stepped care model of treatment, as well as the Comprehensive Behavioral (ComB) model of treating trichotillomania.
Board Member
Nancy J. Keuthen, Ph.D.
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Director, Trichotillomania Clinic, Psychiatric Neuroscience Program, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Associate Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School
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Staff Psychologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Co-Director, Trichotillomania Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Chief Psychologist, OCD Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital
Nancy J. Keuthen, Ph.D., has pioneered considerable research in trichotillomania, skin picking, body dysmorphic disorder, and OCD. She has maintained broad research interests in the field of trichotillomania, including its longitudinal course and naturalistic treatment outcome, its phenomenology and psychosocial impact, the role of brain structure and function and neuropsychological profiles in the disorder, and its relationship with other obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders.
Dr. Keuthen has been involved in both pharmacological and cognitive-behavioral treatment outcome studies of trichotillomania and skin picking. In addition, she has been instrumental in the development and validation of numerous assessment instruments. Recently she launched a genetics investigation of trichotillomania, and is also investigating the efficacy of an augmented cognitive-behavioral treatment protocol for trichotillomania that includes affect regulation and relapse prevention skills.
Dr. Keuthen sits on many editorial and scientific advisory boards, including TLC and the International Obsessive Compulsive Foundation. She is the author of the popular book Help for Hair Pullers, and co-authored internet-based treatment programs for both trichotillomania and skin picking. She routinely presents at national and international conferences and local workshops on these topics, and has been interviewed on local and national television as an authority in her field.
Board Member
Charles S. Mansueto, Ph.D.
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Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington
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Charles S. Mansueto, Ph.D., is founder and director of the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he has been involved in the study and treatment of hundreds of BFRB sufferers.
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He is a founding member of TLC's Scientific Advisory Board and also serves on the scientific advisory boards of the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation and the Tourette Syndrome Association of Greater Washington.
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He is a past professor of psychology at Bowie State University, Maryland, and is on the clinical faculty of the American School of Professional Psychology of Argosy University, Virginia. He chaired the first national symposium on trichotillomania in 1990 and continues to investigate, publish, and speak about the disorder.
Board Member
Humberto Nicolini, MD, Ph.D.
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Director, Carracci Medical and Family Research Group, Mexico City, Mexico
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Director, OCD Mexican Association
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Chief, Laboratory of Psychiatric and Neurodegenerative Diseases, National Institute of Genomic Medicine, Mexico
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Humberto Nicolini, MD, Ph.D., obtained his medical degrees from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma of Mèxico (UNAM), with specialization in psychiatry from the Mexican Council of Psychiatry. He also trained in the area of genetics at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA under the mentorship of M. Anne Spence, PhD, and Lewis Baxter, MD.
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Dr. Nicolini is a researcher in “F” medical sciences for the System of Researchers of Mexico’s Department of Health and a level III national researcher for the National System of Researchers. He is the founder and executive president of the Mexican Association of Neuroethics’ Board of Directors and a member of Mexico’s National Academy of Medicine.
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He is the most scientifically published and cited psychiatrist who lives and works in México, with 324 publications and 7,614 citations as of January 2021. He previously served as the director of the International College of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (ICOCD), president of the Mexican Association of Molecular Biology in Medicine, and secretary and treasurer of the Mexican College of Psychopharmacology.
Board Member
Tara Peris, Ph.D.
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Assistant Professor, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
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Dr. Tara Peris is Professor and Vice Chair for Research at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. She is also Associate Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Co-Director of the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program. Her research has been funded by NIMH, PCORI, NARSAD, the American Psychological Foundation, CISCO, and several other private foundations. Dr. Peris serves on the editorial board of several journals and is Associate Editor of Behavior Therapy. She is also the 2016 recipient of the Richard Abidin Early Career Award from the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
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Her clinical specialty is in evidence-based assessment and treatment of child and adolescent OCD, anxiety, and related disorders. Her research interests center on (1) understanding basic processes underlying youth anxiety, OCD, and related conditions; and (2) treatment development for youth with refractory cases of these conditions. In the field of BFRBs, she has published on developmental, family environmental, and biological correlates of illness as well as on treatment outcome. In collaboration with study PIs, she served as Project Director for TLC’s BPMI Initiative.
Board Member
Jeremiah M. Scharf, MD, Ph.D.
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Assistant Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
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Director, Tic Disorders Clinic, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital
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Clinical Research Scientist,
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Psychiatric & Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit
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Center for Human Genetic Research
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Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Jeremiah Scharf is a behavioral neurologist and tic disorder specialist as well as a clinical researcher in molecular genetics. He specializes clinically in disorders that lie at the interface between neurology and psychiatry, particularly Tourette Syndrome (TS) and related conditions. His research efforts focus on the genetic underpinnings of TS as well as exploration of heritable subphenotypes of this disorder that might prove useful for future research studies and clinical trials.
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Dr. Scharf completed his BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, his MD from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard Medical School, and his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Harvard University, where he studied neurogenetics under Dr. Louis Kunkel. Following his neurology residency at Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's Hospitals, Dr. Scharf completed subspecialty training in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry at the Brigham Behavioral Neurology Group as well as a research fellowship in the PNGU under Dr. David Pauls.
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Dr. Scharf is a member of the Steering Committee for the TSA International Consortium for Genetics (TSAICG), a team of clinicians and molecular geneticists dedicated to identifying susceptibility genes for TS. He has received research grants from the Tourette Syndrome Association, American Academy of Neurology Foundation, and the National Institutes for Mental Health (NIMH).
Board Member
Dan Stein, MD, Ph.D.
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Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Capetown, South Africa
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Director, Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit on Anxiety Disorders
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Visiting Professor of Psychiatry, Mt. Sinai Medical School, New York, NY
Dan J. Stein, MD, Ph.D., received his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Cape Town, and his doctorate in clinical neuroscience at the University of Stellenbosch. He trained in psychiatry, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychopharmacology at Columbia University in New York. His training also includes a doctorate in philosophy.
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Dr. Stein’s research focuses on the psychobiology and management of anxiety disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social anxiety disorder. His research ranges from basic neuroscience all the way through to epidemiological and cross-cultural research, and he is particularly enthusiastic about the possibility of clinical practice and scientific research that integrates theoretical concepts and empirical data across these different levels.
Dr. Stein has authored or edited over 25 volumes, including Cognitive-Affective Neuroscience of Mood and Anxiety Disorders and The Philosophy of Psychopharmacology: Smart Pills, Happy Pills, Pep Pills. He has also contributed to many articles and chapters. He is a recipient of CINP's Max Hamilton Memorial Award for his contribution to psychopharmacology, and of CINP's Ethics and Psychopharmacology Award for his contribution to the philosophy of psychopharmacology.
Board Member
John Walkup, MD
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Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
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Margaret C. Osterman Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science
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Director, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
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John T. Walkup, MD, is Head of the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and a Margaret C. Osterman Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. He also serves as Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. His scholarly activity covers three main areas of investigation. His work with movement disorders, specifically Tourette syndrome and the other tic disorders, uniquely spans psychiatry, child psychiatry and neurology. His expertise in child and adolescent psychiatry clinical trials focuses on the development and evaluation of psychopharmacological and psychosocial treatments and lastly, he has been involved in developing and evaluating interventions to reduce the large mental health disparities facing Native American youth, specifically drug use and suicide prevention.
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Dr. Walkup serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of TLC, the Anxiety Disorders Association of America Sand the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. In the recent past, Dr. Walkup was the Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Tourette Association of America. He is also the Deputy Editor for Psychopharmacology for the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He was recently elected Councilor at Large of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. His research has been published in major medical journals including Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, an unusual accomplishment for a child and adolescent psychiatrist.
consulting members.
Board Member
Ethan Lerner, MD, Ph.D.
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Department of Dermatology
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Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA
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Ethan Lerner, MD, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and runs a basic science research group at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. His primary research interest is to understand the fundamental mechanisms that lead to the sensation of itch.
Board Member
Philip T. Ninan, MD
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Affiliate Professor of Psychiatric Medicine
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East Carolina University
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Greenville, NC
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Philip T. Ninan, MD, is an Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at East Carolina University, and provides consultation to the biopharmaceutical industry. He serves on the national board of the American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide and chairs the Research Committee of U.S. Vellore Christian Medical College Foundation. Dr. Ninan has focused much of his medical career and research on the assessment of psychiatric treatment response to pharmacologic, psychotherapeutic and device interventions, and understanding their mediating brain mechanisms. Previously, he was a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. From 2006 to 2012 he was a Vice President in Neuroscience, initially at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (Global Medical Affairs) and subsequently at Pfizer (Clinical Sciences).
Dr. Ninan is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is the recipient of the Psychiatrist of the Year award from the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association (2003) and the Outstanding Academician Award of the Indo-American Psychiatric Association (2006). He has authored over a hundred peer reviewed journal articles in anxiety and mood disorders, and schizophrenia. His work has been published in medical and scientific journals including Science, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Archives General Psychiatry, and The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Dr. Ninan received his medical degree from Christian Medical College, Vellore, India (1969) and served an internship at Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India. He immigrated to the U.S. and completed his postdoctoral training in psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. He was a medical staff fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Ninan is a member of several professional organizations including the American MedicalAssociation, American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Psychiatry.
Board Member
Carol Novak, MD, Retired
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Assistant Medical Director, BH Division
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HealthPartners Medical Group, Minneapolis, MN
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Carol Novak, MD, is the Emeritus Outpatient Medical Director of HealthPartners/Regions Behavioral Health in Minneapolis and St. Paul. She treated several hundred patients with trichotillomania and skin picking since 1989 with both medication and behavioral therapy. She has been active with The TLC Foundation for BFRBs since its inception and was the founding director of the TLC Scientific Advisory Board.
Dr. Novak published a twin study showing that there is a strong genetic origin of trichotillomania (Novak C,E., Keuthen N.J., Stewart S.E., Pauls D.L. A twin concordance study of trichotillomania. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2009 Oct 5;150B(7):944–9).
Board Member
David Pauls, Ph.D., Retired
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Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Pauls is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry (Genetics) and Director of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Prior to moving to the Harvard Medical School in September 2001, he was the Professor of Psychiatric and Neurobehavioral Genetics in the Child Study Center at Yale University, where he was the director of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit from September 2001–2011.
Over the past 25 years, his research focused primarily on the genetics of child neuropsychiatric disorders. Research under his direction has led to a better understanding of the inheritance of GTS, OCD, and dyslexia. At the present time he leads an international consortium of investigators devoted to finding genes for GTS and related conditions.
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Dr. Pauls completed his Ph.D. in genetics and cell biology at the University of Minnesota with a focus on human population genetics. His Ph.D., research examined the genetics of mental retardation and giftedness. After completing his Ph.D., he was a post-doctoral fellow in psychiatric genetics in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa, and psychiatric genetic epidemiology in the Department of Human Genetics at Yale School of Medicine.
Board Member
Barbara O. Rothbaum, Ph.D., ABPP
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Director, Veterans Program and the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program
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Paul A. Janssen Chair in Neuropsychopharmacology
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Associate Vice Chair of Clinical Research
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Emory University School of Medicine
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Barbara Olasov Rothbaum received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is currently a professor in psychiatry at the Emory School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and director of the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program at Emory.
Dr. Rothbaum is a pioneer in the application of virtual reality to the treatment of psychological disorders, and also specializes in research on the treatment of individuals with anxiety disorders, particularly focusing on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and trichotillomania.
She has won both state and national awards for her research, is an invited speaker internationally, authors scientific papers and chapters, has published or edited six books, and received the Diplomate in Behavioral Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology.
Board Member
Susan E. Swedo, MD
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Behavioral Pediatrics Section
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Pediatrics and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch, NIMH
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Bethesda, MD
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Dr. Swedo is currently Chief Pediatrics & Developmental Neuroscience Branch at the NIMH. Dr. Swedo received her MD from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and completed her pediatrics residency at Children's Memorial Hospital (Northwestern University) in Chicago. Dr. Swedo began her career as a hospital-based pediatrician in Evanston, IL and was later named Chief of Adolescent Medicine at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University. She moved to the Washington area in 1986 and joined the staff of the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she conducted research on childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Dr. Swedo and her NIMH team were the first to identify a new subtype of pediatric OCD, known by the acronym, PANDAS, which stands for: Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections. This work led to the development of several novel therapies, including use of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and plasmapheresis to treat acutely ill children, and antibiotics prophylaxis to prevent strep-triggered neuropsychiatric exacerbations. Subsequent work has revealed that the cross-reactive antibodies are unique to the PANDAS subgroup and have biologic activity in the CNS.
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In 2002, Dr. Swedo moved to the extramural side of NIMH to serve as Associate Director for Pediatric Research and Director of the Division of Pediatric Translational Research. She returned to the Pediatrics & Developmental Neuroscience Branch in May 2006 to establish a multi-disciplinary, clinical research team dedicated to studies of autism spectrum disorders and related neurodevelopmental disorders.
Board Member
Margo Thienemann, MD
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Stanford University Medical Center Psychiatry & Behavioral Science
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Stanford, CA
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Dr. Margo Thienemann is a psychiatrist in Palo Alto, California, and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford and Stanford Hospital and Clinics. She received her medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and has been in practice for 34 years. She is one of 27 doctors at Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, and one of 132 at Stanford Hospital and Clinics, who specialize in Psychiatry. Dr. Thienemann is a Clinical Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine.