Amber Albee

In Recognition of World Mental Health Month

Shalini Sivathasan, Ph.D., Boston College
Topic: Effects of Multiple Minority Identities on Emotion Regulation, Mental Health Outcomes, and Access to Care
October 10, 2024 | 12:30 PM | WebEx

RSVP

Dr. Shalini Sivathasan (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology department at Boston College. She completed her Ph.D. in School/Applied Child Psychology at McGill University in Canada and an APA-accredited clinical internship in Health Service Psychology (Pediatrics) at the Marcus Autism Center at Emory University and the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Dr. Sivathasan is trained as a child psychologist, having specialized in psychodiagnostic, psychoeducational, and early autism assessment, as well as in cognitive-behavioral interventions for diverse child and adolescent populations. She then gained additional training in mental health and suicide risk assessments among autistic adults through a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.

In Recognition of Heart Health Month

Kenneth E. Freedland, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Topic: Cardiovascular Disease and Depression
February 27, 2025 | 12:30 PM | WebEx

RSVP

Dr. Freedland is a Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Most of his research has focused on depression in patients with heart failure or coronary heart disease. He has also conducted studies of other psychiatric comorbidities, behavioral problems such as poor self-care, and social determinants of health in patients with heart failure. He has been the principal investigator or a co-investigator on both single-site and multicenter trials of interventions for depression in cardiac patients and has served on clinical trial review committees for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). He also has expertise in behavioral trial methodology. Dr. Freedland is the founder of the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Cardiovascular Disease Special Interest Group and of the Behavioral Medicine Research Council, and a fellow of multiple organizations including the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. He was the Program Director of the annual NIH Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials from 2020 to 2024. He has been a member of the Summer Institute faculty since 2007 and the faculty of the NIH-funded ORBIT Institute on Developing Behavioral Treatments to Improve Health since 2022. He has also served as an Associate Editor of Psychosomatic Medicine and Editor-in-Chief of Health Psychology.