SEMINAR SERIES
The Center for Behavioral Health & Technology’s Virtual Speaker Series
BHT Seminar Series
Click here to join our Seminar Series list and receive emails regarding upcoming presenters and zoom links.
All seminars will be held via ZOOM. Contact Dr. Katharine Daniel ked4fd@virginia.edu for additional information or click the button to receive a Zoom link.
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July Seminar: Friday, August 14, 9-10am EDT
Presenter:
Rachel Kornfield, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Preventative Medicine (Behavioral Medicine)
Talk Title:
Generative AI for Digital Mental Health Messaging Interventions
Talk Abstract:
Text messaging is a uniquely accessible way to deliver digital health interventions, offering high levels of reach and usability relative to most apps. Recent advances in generative AI are transforming conversational approaches to mental and behavioral health support, creating new opportunities for more personalized, interactive, and responsive interventions. In this talk, Dr. Kornfield will describe how her team is exploring the integration of large language models into two automated text messaging interventions: Small Steps SMS, which supports self-management of depression and anxiety, and a new intervention designed to support individuals initiating and maintaining medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and their concerned significant others. Through demonstrations of several AI-enhanced dialogue approaches, she will illustrate a range of strategies for integrating large language models into evidence-based behavioral interventions, including personalized feedback, interactive therapeutic exercises, conversation rehearsal, and open-ended conversations. The talk will conclude with lessons learned about the complementary strengths of generative AI and rules-based systems, and how they can be combined to enhance evidence-based interventions while maintaining safety and treatment fidelity.
Dr. Rachel Kornfield is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and core faculty in the Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies in Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Prior to this, she completed a T32 post-doctoral fellowship in digital mental health at Northwestern University, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Drawing on expertise in communication science, human-computer interaction, and behavioral health, her program of research seeks to understand and optimize supportive communication within digital mental health interventions, including communication with peers, mental health professionals, and automated conversation systems (e.g., chatbots). She is particularly interested in designing and evaluating digital mental health interventions that can adapt to provide the right kind of support, at the right time. She is supported by a Research Career Development (K01) award from the NIMH, focused on designing and evaluating an automated text messaging intervention that supports individuals in self-managing depression, and that is personalized to users through reinforcement learning, a form of machine learning.
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BHT Seminar Series
Click here to join our Seminar Series list and receive emails regarding upcoming presenters and zoom links.
Upcoming Speakers
September 11, 2026
Jillian Strayhorn, New York University
October 9, 2026
Emre Sezgin, Ohio State University/Nationwide Children’s Hospital
November 13, 2026
Roger Vilardaga, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
December 11, 2026
Ryan Mace, Mass General Brigham/Harvard Medical School
Past Speakers (by year)
Speaker: Dr. Erin Bange
Dr. Bange is a genitourinary medical oncologist and health services researcher
Speaker Affiliation: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Date: 7/10/2026
Talk Title: Making Telehealth Delivery of Cancer Care at Home Efficient and Safe (MATCHES)
Talk Abstract: Talk Abstract: Cancer care is increasingly effective but remains costly and logistically burdensome for patients and their families. Advances in telehealth and other healthcare technologies provide new opportunities to redesign cancer care in ways that are more patient-centered, convenient, and accessible. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Making Telehealth Delivery of Cancer Care at Home Efficient and Safe (MATCHES) Telehealth Research Center is a National Cancer Institute–funded Telehealth Research Center of Excellence dedicated to generating the evidence needed to guide the safe, effective, and equitable use of telehealth in oncology. At the center of this program is MATCH-UP, a pragmatic clinical trial evaluating an enhanced telehealth model that combines video visits with home phlebotomy and at-home administration of cancer therapy for patients with breast and prostate cancer. This presentation will provide an overview of the MATCHES research program, the rationale and design of the enhanced telehealth model, and lessons learned from implementing and evaluating innovative home-based cancer care.
Speaker: Dr. Katie Krol
Dr. Krol is a Lead Product Researcher at TELUS Digital with 18 years of experience
investigating human behavior across psychology, neuroscience, and UX. After an academic career spanning labs and degrees in the US, the UK, and Germany, she pivoted to user and product research in 2022 and has not looked back.
Speaker Affiliation: Lead Product Researcher at TELUS Digital
Date: 6/12/2026
Talk Title: The 2030 interface: Researching the future of AI (and building it yourself)
Talk Abstract: What do users actually want from AI interfaces, and how do we build products that reflect those needs? This talk presents findings from a mixed-methods study of experienced AI users mapping a user-centric vision for AI in 2030. Using a toolkit of 47 interface “building blocks,” participants designed their ideal AI experience across guided tasks, present-day reflections, and aspirational audio recordings. A weighted Resonance Score and Exploratory Graph Analysis surfaced four strategic visions and five distinct user interaction mindsets, revealing consistent demand for an AI that is ambient, deeply personal, and trustworthy enough to delegate to.
In the second half, Katie will demo an interactive dashboard she built in Cursor – with no prior engineering experience – to bring these findings to life, followed by hands-on demos of AI prototyping tools (Figma Make, Google Stitch, and Claude Artifacts) for getting ideas out of your head and into something tangible before you ever sit down with a designer or engineer.
Speaker: Dr. Joanna Arch
Speaker Affiliation: Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder
Date: 10/17/2025
Talk Topic: Research using ACT to support adults with cancer — including two major NIH-funded studies on fatigue, anxiety, and quality of life.
- Dr. Arch is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder and a leading researcher on anxiety, stress, and emotional well-being, especially among people coping with serious illness. Her work has really shaped how mindfulness- and acceptance-based therapies (like ACT) are used in clinical care.She’ll be talking about her research using ACT to support adults with cancer — including two major NIH-funded studies on fatigue, anxiety, and quality of life.
Speaker: Dr. Andrew Berry
Speaker Affiliation: Assistant Professor in the Division of Intervention Science, Department of Medical
Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University
Date: 11/14/2025
Talk Title: Designing, implementing, and evaluating health information technologies
- Dr. Andrew Berry is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Intervention Science, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He is affiliated with the Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITs), the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans’ Independence Center, and the Human-Computer Interaction + Design (HCI+D) Center. Dr. Berry has over 15 years of experience designing, implementing, and evaluating health information technologies. He completed PhD training in Human Centered Design & Engineering and postdoctoral training in Biomedical Informatics, both at the University of Washington. Prior to graduate studies, Dr. Berry worked in technical services at Epic.
Speaker: Douglas Billings
Speaker Affiliation: ISA Associates
Date: 9/12/2025
- Dr. Billings is a clinical psychologist focusing on technology solutions to reduce health disparities among African Americans. Dr. Billings has been the Principal Investigator on a number of NIH grants examining the capability of different platforms (e.g., computer-based, tablets) to efficiently and effectively assess, prevent, and treat HIV. In recent years, his work has focused on mobile solutions that can deliver patient-centered outcomes for African Americans who lack access to comprehensive, quality health care services.
Speaker: Max Birk, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: Eindhoven University of Technology
Date: 3/14/2025
Talk Title: Game-based Digital Beiomarkers for Acute and Chronic Stress
Speaker: Dr. Andrea Graham
Speaker Affiliation: Assistant Professor and Chief of the Division of Implementation Science in the Department of
Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Co-Director of the Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITs)
Talk Title: Digital Behavioral Interventions for Binge Eating and Weight-related Behaviors
- Talk Abstract: This presentation will describe a program of research on digital behavioral interventions for binge eating and weight-related behaviors, with a particular focus on how human-centered design methods can be applied to design, optimization, and implementation of these digital tools.
Speaker: Nicholas Jacobson
Speaker Affiliation: Dartmouth
Date: 7/11/2025
Talk Title: Using AI and Passive Data to Enhance Digital Assessment and Treatment of Mental Health
- Talk Abstract: This presentation will provide an overview of how passively collected data from smartphones, wearables, and internet behavior can be used to enhance the assessment and treatment of mental health. I will discuss how AI and machine learning models can leverage this data to accurately detect a range of mental health conditions, predict both long-term and rapid changes in symptoms, and inform the delivery of scalable, personalized digital interventions. The talk will culminate with a deep dive into the development and evaluation of Therabot, the first generative AI for psychotherapy, highlighting findings from its first-of-its-kind randomized controlled trial.
Speaker: Saskia Kelders, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: University of Twente
Date: 4/11/2025
Talk Title: Engagement and Personalization in Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Talk Abstract: We’re Not Stalking, We’re Just… Deeply Invested? The Data Behind Our Boundary Issues.
Speaker: Kim Mathiasen, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: Aarhus University
Date:5/9/2025
Talk Title: inPractice: Translational Research in Digital Psychology
- Talk Abstract: In this talk, Kim provides an overview of the current work of the research group inPractice at the Dept. for Psychology and Behavioural Sciences at Aarhus University, Denmark. The group is a central hub for research in this field in Denmark and has among other things established a Danish national iCBT service for all adults with anxiety or depression and is engaged in Nordic and international networks in the field. Currently, the group works primarily with personalisation of iCBT for adults and with developing and testing iCBT treatment of anxiety as well as preventive support systems for young people. But the group also works with novel ways of collecting and integrating data into clinical practice and with AI as a clinician decision support tool. Finally, he will briefly sketch out how the group works with educating future clinical psychologists in the use of digital tools and point to future directions for the group.
Speaker: Steve Ondersma, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: Michigan State University
Date: 2/14/2025
Talk Title: Open source, open science, and the ramifications of a no-code platform for digital app development
- Talk Abstract: The Computerized Intervention Authoring System (CIAS; www.cias.app) is an NIH-funded, open-source, non-commercial platform that enables researchers to easily develop, edit, and share sophisticated interactive content without coding of any kind. Interventions built with CIAS deploy as cross-platform compatible web/mobile web apps of any duration, with easy personalization, optional animated narrators who speak aloud in over 40 languages, and instant translation into any of over 100 languages. Researchers can either use the hosted platform to build and deploy their interventions (without worrying about the technicalities of platform maintenance) or deploy the platform on their server. This presentation will first highlight the rationale for, and advantages of, mobile web apps and no-code Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms. Second, it will present some of the specific applications built using this platform, along with findings from randomized trials. Finally, this presentation will propose a long-term vision of digital intervention research in which investigators collectively invest their time and resources into shared open-source no-code platforms that are widely used and accessible to all.
Speaker: Alexandra Psihogios, PhD.
Speaker Affiliation: Northwestern University, Chicago
Date: 1/10/2025
Talk Title: Community-Engaged Digital Health Research for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors
- Talk Abstract: In this presentation, Dr. Alex Psihogios of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine will share digital health research focused on promoting oral chemotherapy adherence among
adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer. Dr. Psihogios will review how AYA input and community partnerships shaped two emerging digital interventions. The first intervention is an app-based, just-in-time adaptive mobile intervention called “ADAPTS”. The second intervention aims to deliver adherence support within an information ecosystem that AYAs already use for cancer—social media. As part of this line of work, Dr. Psihogios collaborates closely with a Community Advisory Board of YA survivors who are “social media influencers” to develop engaging cancer health messages with broad reach. She will share preliminary results from a pilot study testing this social media-enabled intervention and discuss how her team plans to generalize this partnership to address other disparities that AYAs with cancer face (e.g., unmet mental health needs, low survivorship care utilization).
Speaker: Paige Anderson, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: Associate Professor, Georgia State University
Talk Title: Making an Impact with Digital Technologies
Speaker: Suzanne Chambers
Speaker Affiliation: Executive Dean of Health Sciences at the Australian Catholic University
Date: 10/24/2023
Talk Title: Delivering Low Intensity Psychological Care for Adults with Cancer”
- Talk Abstract: We developed a mobile Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management intervention for African American women managing daily racial and non-racial stress. This consisted of 11 weekly chapters with 62 videos covering topics from racism as a stressor to coping strategies and relaxation training. Layered on top was a logic-driven text system that continuously monitored video engagement and delivered two message types: reminders (“nudges”) and positive reinforcement written in the Host’s voice. This presentation will report engagement and completion data examining the effectiveness of this intensive reminder system in promoting sustained participation across the 11-week intervention period.
Speaker: David Conroy
Speaker Affiliation: Professor of Kinesiology and Human Development & Family Studies, Penn State, and immediate Past President, Society of Behavioral Medicine
Date: 6/8/2023
Talk Title: Precision Health Behavior Interventions with Fixed and Adaptive Decision Rules
Speaker: Katherine E. Daniel, MA
Speaker Affiliation: M.A. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
Date: 10/2/2023
Talk Title: Emotion Regulation as a Transdiagnostic Target for Personalized Treatment.
- In this job talk, Katharine will discuss how her research program’s focus on studying emotion regulation in context through the development and application of innovative statistical approaches can guide personalized mHealth interventions that support mental health functioning in the face of complex physical health conditions.
Speaker: Jeff Dunn, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: Professor of Social and Behavioural Science and Chair of the Cancer Survivorship at the University of Southern Queensland
Date: 10/24/2023
Talk Title: Delivering Low Intensity Psychological Care for Adults with Cancer”
- Talk Abstract: We developed a mobile Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management intervention for African American women managing daily racial and non-racial stress. This consisted of 11 weekly chapters with 62 videos covering topics from racism as a stressor to coping strategies and relaxation training. Layered on top was a logic-driven text system that continuously monitored video engagement and delivered two message types: reminders (“nudges”) and positive reinforcement written in the Host’s voice. This presentation will report engagement and completion data examining the effectiveness of this intensive reminder system in promoting sustained participation across the 11-week intervention period.
Speaker: Karen Fortuna, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College
Date: 4/14/2023
Talk Title: Digital Peer Support to Promote Health Behavior Change.
Speaker: Dr. Jordan F. Garris
Speaker Affiliation: University of Virginia, Neurology
Talk Title: Tremor Retrainer Smartphone Application for Treatment of Functional Tremor
- Jordan F. Garris, MD, is a pediatric neurologist who specializes in caring for children and adolescents with neurological disorders, particularly movement disorders such as tics, tremor, and more rare brain-related balance problems (ataxia) and involuntary movements including dystonia and chorea. As a researcher, she is particularly interested in studying functional impairment and neurophysiologic abnormalities related to Tourette syndrome. Garris is a recipient of the Fullerton Foundation Scholarship, awarded to only three students in North Carolina and South Carolina beginning medical school who show potential for making an impact on the welfare of society. She is paying it forward by teaching and mentoring students and pediatric residents interesting in pursuing child neurology.
Speaker: Teague Henry, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: Assistant Professor of Data Science and Psychology, University of Virginia
Talk Title: Measurement and Ecological Momentary Assessment: Ordinal Outcomes and Continuous Processes
Speaker: Chris Kuenze, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology, University of Virginia
Date: 5/12/2023
Talk Title: Integrating Wearable Technology in the Rehabilitation of Patients with Traumatic Knee Injury
Speaker: Dr. Fred Muench
Speaker Affiliation: President of The Unregret Foundation (non-profit), Co-Founder & CSO of Vagus Labs, and Senior Advisor to the Partnership to End Addiction
Talk Title:Lessons Learned from Digital Mental Health Implementation Projects
Speaker: Nick Allen
Speaker Affiliation: Center for Digital Mental Health; Associate Director of Clinical Training, University of Oregon
Talk Title: Why won’t they put down their phones? Risks and opportunities in adolescents’ digital lives and mental health
Speaker: Amit Baumel
Speaker Affiliation: Senior lecturer, Department of Community Mental Health, University of Haifa
Talk Title: The Role of Digital Health Intervention Researcher in The Age of Technological Acceleration
Speaker: Patrick Finan
Speaker Affiliation: Dr. Patrick Finan, Harold Carron Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Virginia School of Medicine
Talk Title: Mechanisms of the Association of Sleep and Pain: A Focus on Positive Emotions and Reward
Speaker: Jain Praduman
Speaker Affiliation: CEO & Founder, Vibrent Health; Principal Investigator, NIH All of Us Research Program, Participant Technology Systems Center; Principal Investigator, NIH RADx Program
Talk Title: All of Us Research Program
Speaker: Cynthia Castro Sweet
Speaker Affiliation: Senior Director of Clinical Research, Modern Health, Center for Digital Health, The Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University
Talk Title: Real World Evidence Generation in the Private Sector of Digital Health
Speaker: Teresa Hagan Thomas
Speaker Affiliation: Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing
Talk Title: Using a Serious Game Platform to Teach Self-Advocacy Skills in the Advance Cancer Setting
Speaker: Pepijn Van de Ven
Speaker Affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Electronic & Computer Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick
Talk Title: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Speaker: Dr. Sabine Wilhelm
Speaker Affiliation: Center for Digital Mental Health, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH); Director, Center for OCD and Related Disorders, MGH; Professor, Harvard Medical School
Talk Title: Latest advances in digital mental health
Speaker: Doryab Afsaneh
Speaker Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Systems and Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Virginia
Talk Title: Modeling of biobehavioral rhythms using mobile and wearable data streams
Speaker: Saeed Abdullah
Speaker Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology
Talk Title: Talking to Machines: Leveraging Voice Interfaces for Intervention Delivery
Speaker:Keith Bredemeier
Speaker Affilliation: Assistant Professor in the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety (CTSA), University of Pennsylvania
Talk Title: Executive functioning and repetitive negative thoughts
Speaker: Michael Businelle
Speaker Affiliation: Professor, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Co-Director of the Health Promotion Research Center
Talk Title: “Using the Insight Platform to Identify and Intervene Upon Mechanisms of Behavior Change
Speaker: Eric Finkelstein
Speaker Affiliation: Executive Director Lien Centre for Palliative Care, Director NIHA Research Program, Professor Duke-NUS Medical School
Talk Title: Behavioural Economics as a Tool for Chronic Disease Prevention and Treatment: Theory and Evidence
Speaker: Jamie Jacobs
Speaker Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School and Director of Caregiving Research, Massachusetts General Hospital
Talk Title: No longer a captive audience: Digital applications of psychosocial interventions for patients with cancer and their families at transitional times
Speaker: Carissa Low
Speaker Affilliation: Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of Pittsburgh
Talk Title: Smartphone and Wearable Sensing in Clinical Cancer Research
Speaker: Philip Napier and Li Fultz
Speaker Affilliation: UVA Health Information Security
Talk Title: UVA Health Information Security Review Process
Speaker: Dr. Brian Suffoletto
Speaker Affilliation: Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Stanford University
Talk Title: Text-message Micro-Interventions to Reduce Binge Drinking in Young Adults
Speaker: Damon Swift
Speaker Affilliation: Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology, East Carolina University
Talk Title: Exercise interventions to improve cardiometabolic risk factors in obese adults
Speaker: Lorien Abroms
Speaker Affilliation: Professor, Department of Prevention and Community Health and Associate Dean for PhD/MS Studies at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University
Talk Title: Maximizing efficacy and reach with digital technologies for health behavior change: the example of smoking cessation
Speaker: Dror Ben-Zev
Speaker Affilliation: Director of the University of Washington BriTe Center
Talk Title: Using mobile technology for those with serious mental illness
Speaker: Jennifer Lobo
Speaker Affilliation: Assistant Professor, UVA Public Health Sciences
Talk Title: The importance and potential applications of optimization methods and decision models to improve health care delivery
Speaker: Wen You
Speaker Affilliation: Associate Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia
Talk Title: Conducting applied health economics and health policy design and evaluation work
Speaker: Shelley Bluethmann
Speaker Affiliation: Penn State Cancer Insiitute
Talk Title: CBHT
Speaker: Mark Floryan
Speaker Affiliation: University of Virginia
Speaker: Berkhart Funk
Speaker Affiliation: University of Luneburg, Germany
Talk Title: Predictive modeling in e-mental health
Speaker: Frances Kay-Lambkin
Speaker Affiliation:University of Newcastle, Australia
Speaker: John Loch
Speaker Affiliation:
Talk Title: Wireless Health
Speaker: Tine Nordgreen
Speaker Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, Bergen, Norway
Talk Title: INTROMAT (www.intromat.no), a Norwegian Research Council funded project that included a cross-diciplinary team led by Dr. Nordgreen as the Principle Investigator.
Speaker: Keith Petrie and Liz Broadbent
Talk Title: CBHT from Auckland, New Zealand
Speaker: Kelly Shaffer
Speaker Affiliation: University of Virginia
Talk Title: Why caregiver support is essential to comprehensive cancer care
Speaker: Billie Nahum Shani
Speaker Affiliation: University of Michigan
Talk Title: Just In Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs)
Speaker: Vic Strecher
Speaker Affiliation: University of Michigan
Speaker: Bethany Teachman
Speaker Affiliation: University of Virginia
Speaker: Bobby Zacharaie
Speaker Affiliation: Denmark