Welcome Remarks

I received my PhD in clinical psychology from Virginia Tech in 2021, and I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. My research focuses on understanding depression's chronicity, specifically neural vulnerabilities that persist in depression after treatment, that put an individual at greater risk for a future relapse/recurrence and long-lasting residual symptoms. I aim to use this program of research to help inform and develop recovery-oriented clinical practices for depression that address persistent neural vulnerabilities. Recently, I have begun working in ABCT leadership, specifically serving as chair of the Neurocognitive Therapies and Translational Research (NTTR) special interest group. In this role, I have worked on several initiatives to help bridge the gap between neuroscience research and the clinic, including helping organize events like this summit, to encourage continued discussion between neuroscientists and clinicians.

Dr. Siegle directs the Program in Cognitive Affective Neuroscience (PICAN) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he is a Professor of Psychiatry and Translational Sciences. His research examines neural mechanisms of emotional and cognitive information processing in psychiatric disorders, how this information can be used to predict response to treatment, and to guide novel treatment development. He works to translate cognitive and emotional neuroscience for use in the real world. Dr. Siegle has over 225 publications and has been continuously funded by NIH and foundation awards for over 20 years.

Dr. Fang is an Assistant Professor (Associate Professor, starting September 2024) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington. She received her A.B. in Psychological and Brain Studies from Dartmouth College in 2007, and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Boston University in 2014. After completing her predoctoral clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, she continued on as faculty and as a licensed clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry OCD and Related Disorders Program. As Director of the Center of Neuroscience, Neuroendocrinology, & Clinical Translation (CoNNeCTLab), Dr. Fang is focused on understanding the brain and psychological mechanisms underlying social and emotional processing in anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders using an array of techniques including neuroimaging, neuroendocrine assays, pharmacology, and behavioral/self-report assessment. In particular, she is interested in aspects of social cognition (e.g., self-focused attention) that go awry in psychiatric disorders, and translating knowledge of the neuroscience and psychology of these processes to inform clinical applications.