Research Faculty
Research Faculty
For residents and prospective applicants interested in the Research Pathway. Select a column heading to sort.
Browse by research area, active projects, and available funding resources.
Faculty | Division | Research Area | Active Projects | Funding & Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. Steven Lamberti, MD Professor of Psychiatry | Community Psychiatry | Serious mental illness; relapse prevention; criminal-legal system involvement | › RCT of the Rochester Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) model in Minnesota — currently in data analysis phase | Federal (NIH), Foundation |
| Kayla Hunt, PsyD Assistant Professor | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Evidence-based assessment and treatment for youth; patient-reported outcomes (PROMIS); quality improvement | › QI initiatives focused on youth evidence-based assessment and PRO implementation | Not listed |
| Wilfred R. Pigeon, PhD Professor; Director, Sleep & Neurophysiology Research Lab | Collaborative Care and Wellness | Sleep research; insomnia; PTSD; suicide prevention through sleep intervention | › Sleep & mental health in Deaf/hard-of-hearing individuals (Co-I, Canadian Hearing Services) › Adapted CBT-sleep intervention for hazardous alcohol use (R34 AA029506, PI) › Optimizing digital behavioral treatment for co-occurring insomnia and depression (DoD, PI) › CBT for insomnia for suicide prevention (VA Office of Mental Health, MPI) | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Foundation |
| Brian P. Keane, PhD Assistant Professor | Neuroscience | Functional MRI; neuropsychological testing; visual and sensory processing in psychosis | › Micro eye-movement alterations in psychosis › Visually guided reaching impairments in psychosis › Sensory functional connectivity differences in psychosis | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Tara Augenstein, PhD Assistant Professor of Psychiatry | Acute Adult Psychiatry | Acute and inpatient psychiatry; multi-method clinical assessment; clinician attitudes | › Clinician growth mindsets toward patients on inpatient psychiatry (collaboration with Dept. of Psychology) › Facilitating inpatient recruitment for multi-site studies | Local / Institutional |
| Jessica Goodman, PhD Assistant Professor | Collaborative Care and Wellness | Translational science; integrated care in inpatient medicine and surgery; interprofessional education (Structured Microteaching) | › VA Center for Integrated Healthcare Incubation Grant — Structured Microteaching Approach: piloting feasibility in inpatient medicine (Year 3) | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Todd Michael Bishop, PhD Assistant Professor of Psychiatry | Collaborative Care and Wellness | Sleep disturbances and suicidal behavior; insomnia; sleep-related breathing disorders; military mental health | › DoD (PI) 2025–2029: Reducing crises and suicide in the Idaho Army National Guard — First Line Leader Program enhancement › VA/HSR&D: CBT for insomnia in veterans (multiple active studies) | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Foundation |
| Ian Cero, PhD Assistant Professor | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Suicide research; statistical methodology; adolescent risk | › Active recruitment and early-stage studies — contact for current openings | Not listed |
| Marsha Wittink, MD, MBE Professor | Medicine in Psychiatry | Patient priorities and shared decision-making; serious mental illness and medical comorbidity; bioethics | › Patient Priorities Assessments to Build Trust and Reduce Unnecessary Hospital Readmissions | Local / Institutional |
| Kim Van Orden, PhD Associate Professor; Co-Director, Center for Study & Prevention of Suicide | Geriatric Mental Health and Memory Care | Social isolation and loneliness; geriatric mental health; behavioral interventions; suicide prevention in older adults | › Connection in Caregivers: social relationships and loneliness in dementia caregivers (HOPE Lab) › Mindfulness-based intervention for suicide prevention in older adults | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Yeates Conwell, MD Professor of Psychiatry | Geriatric Mental Health and Memory Care | Suicide and suicide prevention in later life; positive aging; neuroarts | › Advisory and mentorship role; available to guide residents in geriatric suicide research | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Mark Oldham, MD Associate Professor | Medicine in Psychiatry | Delirium; sleep disturbances in hospitalized patients; catatonia; consultation-liaison psychiatry | › Sleep disturbances as predictors of delirium › Ocular biomarkers to predict delirium › Daridorexant for delirium prevention (clinical trial) | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Anton P. Porsteinsson, MD William B. and Sheila Konar Professor | Geriatric Mental Health and Memory Care | Alzheimer's disease and dementia; biomarkers; neuroimaging; novel pharmacologic treatments | › ADNI (Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative) — AD-CARE site, top enroller since 2005 › Multiple ongoing pharmacologic trials in AD and MCI | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Foundation, Industry, Philanthropy |
| Joy Choi, MD Assistant Professor | Collaborative Care and Wellness | Psychiatric changes after LVAD implantation; proactive psychiatric consultation in surgical populations | › URMFG Innovation Grant: PRIME — Proactive Integration of Mental Health Care in Perioperative Medicine | Local / Institutional, Foundation |
| Paulo Lizano, MD, PhD Associate Professor; Academic Chief, Community Division; Director, Early Psychosis Research Program | Community Psychiatry | Early psychosis; inflammatory and microvascular mechanisms; multimodal neuroimaging; choroid plexus; stem cell models | › FastPlex (R01): novel segmentation tool for the choroid plexus from brain MRIs › Stem cell project (R01): in vivo and ex vivo models of early psychosis | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Foundation |
| Daniel Maeng, PhD Associate Professor | Collaborative Care and Wellness | Health services research; health economics; policy analysis; behavioral healthcare utilization | › Assessment and evaluation of interventions to reduce behavioral-related healthcare utilization and cost | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional |
| Karyn Hartz-Mandell, PhD Assistant Professor | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Infant and early childhood mental health consultation; measure development; implementation science; workforce development | › IECMHC program evaluation for a community agency › Evaluation of a professional certificate program for IECMH consultants | Foundation |
| Aileen Aldalur, PhD Assistant Professor; Research Director, Deaf Wellness Center | Acute Adult Psychiatry | Deaf mental health; suicide prevention; Deaf acculturative stress; evidence-based treatments for the Deaf community | › K23 (1K23MH137406-01A1, PI): CBT for treatment-seeking suicidal Deaf adults — 2025–2029 | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional |
| Anna Bailey, PhD Senior Instructor / Psychologist | Community Psychiatry | Suicide prevention in youth and young adults; clinical high-risk for psychosis; social connectedness; inflammatory processes | › K12 pilot study: social and biological factors contributing to suicidal thoughts and behaviors in youth at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis (CTSI-funded) | Local / Institutional |
| Hochang Benjamin Lee, MD John Romano Professor and Chair of Psychiatry | Mental Health Disparity & Equity Research | Innovative healthcare delivery models; post-surgical neuropsychiatric morbidity; Asian American mental health disparities | › Co-Investigator on multiple projects at the intersection of psychiatry and medicine — post-surgical neuropsychiatric outcomes, health disparities | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional, Foundation |
| Meredith Gansner, MD Assistant Professor | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Online social contagion in youth; high-risk online behaviors in acute care settings; social media and suicide | › Content analysis of social media posts related to high-risk behaviors (substance use, suicide) › Exploring youth exposure to drug-related online content (federally funded) | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Lisham Ashrafioun, PhD Associate Professor | Addiction Psychiatry | Psychosocial interventions for chronic pain, substance use disorders, and suicide risk; health services research | › R01: RCT of CBT for Loneliness vs. Health Education in individuals with opioid use disorder › SUD prevention in rural communities | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Laura Perrone, PhD Clinical Senior Instructor | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Community-based participatory research; mental health services in natural family settings; cross-sector collaboration | › Connecting for Kids — expanding cross-sector communication model to 5 surrounding counties (Fidelis Care Behavioral Health grant) | Local / Institutional |
| Eric D. Caine, MD Professor Emeritus | Community Psychiatry | Suicide research and prevention; veteran populations; epidemiology and population health | › VA-based projects on suicide among Veterans aged 18–34 | Local / Institutional |
| Autumn Gallegos, PhD Associate Professor | Collaborative Care and Wellness | Mindfulness-based interventions; resilience and self-regulation; stress biology; social connection and suicide risk | › UR Resilience Center: biological embedding of stress in adults (Database Study Lead) › Social connection and suicide risk (collaboration with Dr. Van Orden) | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional |
| Caroline Easton, PhD Associate Professor; Academic Division Chief, Addiction | Addiction Psychiatry | Digital therapeutics; wearable technology; AI applications in addiction; biomarker research; RCTs | › RCT: RITchCBT (digital therapeutic) vs. human-delivered CBT for addiction and aggressive behavior — includes wearable biometric sub-study | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Melissa Heatly, PhD Assistant Professor; Director, UR-Supporting Our Students (SOS) Expanded School Mental Health | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | School mental health; workforce development; interprofessional collaboration; evidence-based and trauma-informed care; implementation science | › UR-Supporting Our Students (SOS) — Expanded School Mental Health Technical Assistance Center › Connecting for Kids — interprofessional collaboration between schools, primary care, and behavioral health | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional, Foundation, Philanthropy |
| Karen Schmeelk-Cone, PhD Clinical Research Data Specialist II | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Suicide prevention; substance use prevention; community network-based interventions; school-based programs | › Sources of Strength — school-based suicide prevention › Wingman Guardian Connect — suicide prevention in the USAF › Above the Influence — vaping prevention (middle/high schools) | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional, Foundation |
| Tom O'Connor, PhD Professor | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Pre/peri/postnatal influences on child development; developmental origins of mental health; parenting interventions | › ECHO — 2 pregnancy cohorts with long-term follow-up › Parenting treatment trials (UK collaboration) › Early childhood caries cohort | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Arielle Sheftall, PhD Associate Professor | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Early vulnerabilities to youth suicidal behaviors; developmental risk factors; family-based research | › Family Risk Study — identifying heritable risk factors for youth suicide › Transformative Study — novel approaches to youth suicide risk | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Steven Silverstein, PhD Professor of Psychiatry; Associate Chair of Research | Community Psychiatry | Schizophrenia; visual and retinal biomarkers; cognition; mental health in people with vision loss; psychosis risk | › Retinal imaging studies in people with serious mental illness and at-risk populations › Characterizing clinical high-risk populations for psychosis | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Foundation, Philanthropy |
| David Jacobowitz, BS, MA Senior Human Subjects Research Specialist | Suicide Prevention | Suicide prevention; serious and persistent mental illness; criminal recidivism; social connectedness models | › THRIVE-Group — peer follow-up to prevent suicide › Wingman Guardian Connect — social connectedness model in the USAF › ASSIP — brief therapy for suicide attempt survivors | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Foundation, Local / Institutional |
| Carol Podgorski, PhD, MPH, MS Professor; Director & Associate Chair for Faculty Affairs; Finger Lakes Center of Excellence for Alzheimer's Disease | Geriatric Mental Health and Memory Care | Medical family therapy in dementia caregiving; biopsychosocial models of patient/family-centered dementia care; faculty mentorship development | › Biopsychosocial, ecological approaches to care for patients and families (qualitative and clinical data) | Local / Institutional |
| Elizabeth J. Santos, MD, MPH Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Medicine | Geriatric Mental Health and Memory Care | Elder abuse; geriatric forensics; decision-making capacity; dementia caregiving; nursing home telepsychiatry | › GUIDE — home visits for dementia care › E-MDT — Enhanced Multidisciplinary Teams for elder abuse and financial exploitation › Project ECHO GeMH / Geriatric Telepsychiatry — provider education | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional |
| Ellen Poleshuck, PhD Professor | Collaborative Care and Wellness | Integrated treatments for ob/gyn patients with depression; perinatal mental health; intimate partner violence; unmet social needs | › NIMH SBIR trial — postpartum depression prevention intervention (in-person vs. app) › VA Office of Rural Health — peer specialist intervention for rural women Veterans | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Paul Geha, MD Associate Professor | Collaborative Care and Wellness | Brain pathophysiology of chronic pain; neuroimaging biomarkers; language-based digital markers | › Brain biomarkers for chronic pain (NIH-funded) › Brain biomarkers for risk and resilience to chronic pain › Language-based digital markers of chronic pain and its treatment | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional |
| Tanya Tran, PhD Senior Instructor | Community Psychiatry | Psychotherapy for cognitive health and functional recovery; motivation and pleasure symptoms in psychosis; Action-Based Cognitive Remediation (ABCR) | › Pilot study: psychotherapy protocol targeting motivation and pleasure symptoms in clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Jennifer Claire West, PhD Associate Professor; Co-Director, URMC Firearm Injury Prevention Program | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Firearm injury prevention; provider education; older adult firearm safety | › Provider education evaluation — firearm injury prevention programs | Local / Institutional |
| Daniel McFarland, DO, MS Associate Professor; Director of Psycho-Oncology | Collaborative Care and Wellness | Psycho-oncology; consultation-liaison psychiatry in cancer care; psychiatric aspects of cancer treatment decision-making | › NCORP planning-phase protocol — STAR*D-like trial in oncology › Treatment refusal decision-making in patients with lung or breast cancer | Not listed |
| Peter A. Wyman, PhD Professor; Co-Director, Center for Study and Prevention of Suicide | Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Preventive interventions through natural social networks; school, workplace, and primary care-based prevention; universal suicide prevention | › R01 MH131738 (PI, $6.9M): Wingman-Connect across military career phases — hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial (2024–2029) | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional, Foundation |
| Caroline Silva, PhD Assistant Professor | Acute Adult Psychiatry | Cultural and social connection as suicide prevention among Hispanic adults; EMA methods; health disparities | › NIMHD-funded R01: EMA observational study of cultural-social engagement and suicide risk among Hispanics in midlife and beyond | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF) |
| Anthony R. Pisani, PhD Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics | Acute Adult Psychiatry | Suicide prevention; brief therapy interventions; crisis stabilization; AI applications in mental health | › Clinical trial — brief therapy after suicide attempt › Pilot trial — group intervention in crisis stabilization units › Clinical trial — USAF preventive intervention (Wyman PI) | Federal (NIH/DOD/NSF), Local / Institutional |