Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

William (Bill) Riley is the Associate Director for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, and Director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). During his 14 years at the NIH, he also served at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He also holds an appointment in the School of Public Health at George Washington University. Dr. Riley’s research interests include behavioral assessment, technology-based interventions for health risk factors, and the application of engineering and computer science methodologies to the behavioral sciences.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Professor Jo Hart is a Health Psychologist and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is based at the University of Manchester, UK where she is Deputy Head of the Division of Medical Education. She studies and implements interventions focused on education and training of healthcare professionals and has special interests in healthcare professional behaviour and in communication about lifestyle behaviours (www.tentpegs.info). Jo is health professional education lead for The Change Exchange (www.mcrimpsci.org), a programme in which health psychologists volunteer to work with health partnerships between UK and low income country healthcare organisations. Nationally, she works with Health Education England and Public Health England, influencing the use of behavioural science in education and training. She is Past Chair of the British Psychological Society Division of Health Psychology and is interested in the development of health psychology and behavioural science in the UK and globally.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr Lehana Thabane is a Professor of Biostatistics and Interim Chair of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact; Associate member of the Departments of Pediatrics and Anesthesia, School of Nursing, and School of Rehabilitation Science, in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). He is also the Director of Biostatistics at St Joseph’s Healthcare—Hamilton (Ontario, Canada); and senior Scientist at the Population Health Research Institute at Hamilton Health Sciences. His research interests include clinical trials, biostatistical research, evidence synthesis methods, outcomes research, and health services research in prevention, treatment, and management of chronic conditions in primary care.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Professor Christine Bond is Emeritus Professor of Primary Care (Pharmacy), and past Head of Centre of Academic Primary Care, University of Aberdeen. She has been awarded well over 100 grants and has over 250 publications relating to a large portfolio of health services research on the evidence based cost effective use of medicines (prescribed and ‘OTC’), drug misuse, the community pharmacist-general practitioner interface and the wider health care agenda. She is a mixed methods researcher with a track record of designing randomised controlled trials developed systematically vis appropriate feasibility and pilot work, and is a founding member of the Pilot and Feasibility Studies working group. She is Editor of the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, a Trustee of Antibiotic Research UK, and Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy. She is currently, a member of Pharmacy Research UK Scientific Advisory Panel and Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain Science and Research Board.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Washington University School of Medicine and co-investigator and clinical supervisor for the multicenter Enhancing Recovery in Coronary Heart Disease (ENRICHD), a co-investigator and assessment core leader for the multicenter CODIACS Vanguard trial, and a co-investigator and clinical supervisor for the multicenter INSPIRE trial of stress management for lung transplant candidates. He is also a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy (ACT) and an ACT-certified cognitive therapy trainer, an instructor in clinical trial methodology on the faculty of the National Institutes of Health annual Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioural Clinical Trials.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Eric Hekler, PhD, is Director of the Center for Wireless & Population Health Systems (CWPHS), a center of excellence for digital health within the Qualcomm Institute and Associate Professor in Public Health and the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He works on methods for optimizing behavioral interventions and helping people help themselves.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr. Mayo-Wilson’s research focuses on methods for conducting and reporting public health research, particularly systematic reviews and clinical trials. He is interested in ways to increase transparency and reproducibility, such as trial registration and data sharing. He is currently an Associate Professor at Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington. He previously held faculty appointments at Johns Hopkins University and Oxford University.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Antoine Boivin is a practicing physician and associate professor at Université de Montréal Department of Family Medicine. After his medical training in Canada, he completed his MSc and PhD in health services research in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. His research focuses on patient and public engagement in community care, health system improvement, research and policy. He led the first randomized trial of patient engagement in priority setting. He is co-director of the patient and public partnership strategy for the Quebec SUPPORT unit and co-founder of the Center of Excellence on Partnership with Patients and the Public.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Prof Teede is Executive Director of Monash Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre where she is passionate about research translation and driving better health through research. She is the Director of the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation, School of Public Health, Monash University. She is an Endocrinologist at Monash Health, an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow and a member of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Prof Teede has a leading role in research and translation including large scale randomised controlled trials and evidence synthesis, guidelines, co-design of new models of care, implementation and scale-up. She leads three National Centres of Research Excellence including on obesity prevention. Helena has policy advisory roles, has been a member of the national NHMRC Research Committee, Health care committee and the Faculty for Research Translation.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Co-Director of the Montréal Behavioural Medicine Centre, co-lead of the International Behavioural Trials Network (IBTN) and former Director of the Chronic Disease Research Division at Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal. She is a Full Professor in the Department of Psychology and Chair of Behavioural Medicine at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She is also Chair of Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine at the Canadian Psychological Association and an active member of the CHEP recommendation panel (Adherence Subcommittee). She currently holds a Quebec Health Research (FRQS) Senior Investigator Award.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Lucie Byrne-Davis is a Health Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in the University ofManchester, UK, where she is the lead for behavioural and social sciences for undergraduate medicine. Lucie’s research and practice aims to enhance health worker practice through the application of behavioural science. An advocate for coproduction, she has influenced the practice of over 20 healthcare organisations, including international NGOs and UK Governmental bodies, by increasing their use of behavioural science, whilst co-researching the efficacy and feasibility of the methods. Committed to supporting health psychology practice in low-resource settings, she co-founded and directs The Change Exchange: a hub for volunteering, consultancy and research in behavioural science and health worker practice. The Change Exchange has worked in countries including Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, India, and Nepal. Lucie co-developed the Cards for Change, a tool to encourage health educators to use behaviour change techniques and open access elearning about behavioural science and health worker practice, which has been used in over 90 countries across 5 continents.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Predrag “Pedja” Klasnja is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan and a Associate Scientific Investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. He works at the intersection of human-computer interaction and behavioral science, and he studies how mobile technologies can help individuals make and sustain lifestyle changes needed to improve their health. He is particularly interested in the design and evaluation of just-in-time adaptive interventions, technologies that continuously adapt their functioning to provide optimal support to individuals as their needs and circumstances change.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Professor in the Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Applied Physiology at Concordia University, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) Chair in Innovative, Patient-Oriented, Behavioural Clinical Trials, Co-Director of the Montréal Behavioural Medicine Centre, fellow of the Obesity Society and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, and researcher at the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et service sociaux du nord de l’île de Montréal (CIUSSS-NIM) and co-lead of the International Behavioural Trials Network.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr. Kate Guastaferro is an assistant research professor in the Methodology Center at The Pennsylvania State University. Kate has a doctorate and masters of public health with a focus on prevention science. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Prevention and Methodology Training program at Penn State. Her advanced training centered substantively upon the prevention of child sexual abuse and methodologically on innovative methods for the optimization, evaluation, and dissemination of interventions (e.g., the multiphase optimization strategy [MOST]) with high public health impact. As a prevention scientist working at the cutting edge of prevention and intervention science, Dr. Guastaferro’s program of research is devoted to the development, optimization, and evaluation of effective, efficient, economical, and scalable interventions with a specific focus on the prevention of child maltreatment.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Sylvain Bédard first heard the word transplantation in 1980 when he was diagnosed with HCM (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), a heart disease that had just killed his 18-year-old sister. Sylvain struggled for 20 years before he got the gift of life and received a heart transplant in 2000. He has since become the first heart transplant recipient in history to climb 6,000m up Sajama Mountain in Bolivia with his cardiologist. He was a speaker at the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplant, to name a few. Since 2016, Sylvain has been a patient partner at the CEPPP (Center of Excellence on Partnership with Patients and the Public), Patient coordinator and member of the Executive Council at the CDTRP (Canadian Donation and Transplant Research Program), and executive committee member of the Société d’insuffisance cardiaque du Québec. He also collaborates on digital health projects with Infoway, in precision medicine and is a member of the Augmented Intelligence Tactical Committee at the CHUM and of the Committee on Ethical Research on AI and big data at the FRQ.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr. Sudha Sivaram is Lead for Global Cancer Research Training at the Center for Global Health at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI). In this capacity, she works with colleagues across the institute to develop and coordinate research funding programs in global cancer control and enhance training programs in cancer research. Dr. Sivaram is trained in epidemiology and social science and her interests are to help bring public health research data and evidence to practice. In addition to her work for the US Government, Dr. Sivaram is also an associate adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health where she is involved in teaching and working on global health programs and where she was faculty in epidemiology prior to her federal tenure.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr. Lynda Powell is the Charles J. and Margaret Roberts Professor of Preventive Medicine, Medicine, Behavioral Sciences, and Pharmacology, and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She has been a past principal investigator on five major randomized behavioral trials and has served as a standing member of the NHLBI Clinical Trials Study Section. She was the Principal Investigator of the Chicago site of the NHLBI-sponsored Obesity-Related Behavioral Intervention Trials (ORBIT) network and co-developed the ORBIT model for behavioral treatment development. She is a founding faculty member in the NIH/OBSSR-sponsored Summer Institute for Randomized Clinical Trials Involving Behavioral Interventions. She will publish the first book on methods for behavioral randomized clinical trials for chronic diseases in 2020.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Discussion Moderator

Susan M. Czajkowski, Ph.D., is Chief of the Health Behaviors Research Branch (HBRB) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She is an expert on psychosocial and behavioral risk factors for disease, including the development and testing of interventions for behavioral risk factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, adverse diets, and non-adherence to medical regimens; the roles of social support and depression in disease risk and recovery; and the assessment of health-related quality of life and psychosocial functioning in patients with chronic diseases. Dr. Czajkowski was also the lead project officer for the NIH-funded Obesity Related Behavioral Intervention Trials (ORBIT) network, a cooperative agreement program supporting seven research sites across the U.S. with the goal of translating findings from basic research on human behavior into more effective interventions to alter obesity-related health behaviors (e.g., diet, physical activity). As part of the ORBIT consortium, Dr. Czajkowski led the development of the ORBIT model for designing and testing behavioral treatments for chronic diseases. She is also a fellow in the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and recently served as President of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Discussion Moderator

Dr. Molly Byrne is a Professor of Health Psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. In 2014 she was awarded a Health Research Board (HRB, Ireland) Research Leadership Award (2014-2019) to establish and direct the Health Behaviour Change Research Group (HBCRG). This group aims to improve population health by developing and promoting an evidence-based behavioural science approach to health behaviour change interventions. The team are interested in developing novel approaches to increase the implementation and impact of behaviour change interventions, with particular interest in participatory approaches to research involving patients and public. The team are currently running a number of intervention development studies, pilot trials of interventions and definitive intervention trials. Studies are focused on areas including: self-management among young adults with Type 1 Diabetes; attendance at structured education programmes for people with Type 2 Diabetes; delivery of sexual counselling within hospital cardiac rehabilitation; interventions to increase physical activity among overweight pregnant women and interventions to promote healthy infant feeding delivered in primary care.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr. Susan Michie is Professor of Health Psychology at University College London (UCL) and Director of its Centre for Behaviour Change and its Health Psychology Research Group. She is Principal Investigator of the Human Behaviour-Change Project. She is a chartered clinical and health psychologist, whose research focuses on behaviour change in relation to health: how to understand it theoretically and apply theory to intervention development and evaluation, and to evidence synthesis. This is conducted in the domains of risky and preventive behaviours amongst the general population (e.g. smoking, alcohol use, preparing for pandemic flu), managing illness (e.g. medication adherence), and professional practice and implementation (e.g. hand-hygiene amongst hospital staff). Her work includes developing and evaluating digital interventions and investigating the fidelity of delivery of interventions. Her research develops methods to advance the study of behaviour change, including frameworks such as the Behaviour Change Wheel and the Theoretical Domains Framework, and specifying intervention content using taxonomies of behaviour change techniques (BCT Taxonomy v1). Two relevant books she has authored are The Behaviour Change Wheel Guide to Designing Interventions and The ABC of Behaviour Change Theories.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Presenter

Dr. Grégory Ninot is a Professor at the University of Montpellier (France). He leads the CEPS Platform, which is dedicated to improving the methodology of behavioral and non-pharmalogical trials. Dr. Ninot plays a critical coordination role in the development of the quality of these studies in Europe. He is involved in several clinical trials and meta-analyses testing the efficacy of exercise programs, e-health solutions, psychotherapy or disease management education methods mainly in patients with respiratory disease or cancer. He has published over one hundred articles and more than a dozen books on the subject. He writes a blog to raise public awareness of randomized controlled trials, with the ultimate goal of improving care for chronic disease patients.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Moderator

Alex Rothman is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. His research program is comprised of a synthesis of basic research on how people process and respond to health information with the development and evaluation of theory-based interventions to promote healthy behaviour. Working across a broad array of health domains, Dr. Rothman and his colleagues have contributed to our understanding of a range of issues including why and when different health communication strategies are most effective, the decision processes that underlie the initiation and maintenance of behaviour change, and the development of strategies for optimizing the integration of theory and practice. He has served as the President of the Society for Health Psychology and was the founding President of the Social Personality and Health Network. Dr. Rothman has been a leading advocate for forging tighter linkages between theories of health behaviour and intervention practices and policies. To this end, he has contributed to a range of NIH-initiatives including having co-developed the NCI/NIH-sponsored Advanced Training Institute on Health Behavior Theory, co-led  the NHLBI/NIH Accumulating Data to Optimally Predict Obesity Treatment (ADOPT) Core Measures Project, and currently co-chairs the NCI Cognitive, Affective, and Social Processes in Health Workgroup.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Chair

Mariantonia Lemos is a psychologist, coordinator of the Behavioural Studies Masters Program and Professor in the Psychology Department at Universidad EAFIT (Medellín, Colombia). She is a researcher in the field of behavioural medicine with a focus on cardiovascular disease, emotions and stress. She also works as a clinical cognitive behavioural therapy psychologist.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Chair

Dr. Chris Noone is a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is a member of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group and a research associate with the Health Research Board Trial Methodology Research Network. Chris has contributed to research on a range of topics broadly related to health and wellbeing and holds a specific interest in LGBT health. He is also a board member and chair of the research sub-committee for the National LGBT Federation in Ireland.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Chair

Dr. Rebecca Segrave is Deputy Director and Head of Interventions Research at Monash University’s BrainPark (Melbourne, Australia). She is also an AHPRA registered Clinical Neuropsychologist and founding Director of The Turner Institute Behavioural Trials and Implementation Research Group. Dr Segrave leads a multidisciplinary research team that includes exercise physiologists, psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and doctoral students. Together they are working to develop lifestyle (e.g. physical exercise, mindfulness meditation, cognitive training) and technology-based (e.g. therapeutic virtual reality, wearable devices) interventions for mental wellness, and behaviour change strategies that promote their long-term adoption. Her research program focuses on compulsive conditions such as addictions and obsessive compulsive disorder, and how these interventions impact the brain, decision-making, and behavioural control. She has also undertaken specialist research commercialization and translation training and developed a close network of industry, health care, and philanthropic partners with whom she is working to create translation pathways that implement innovative mental health solutions into the community.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Chair

Dr. Karen Matvienko- Sikar is a health psychologist in the area of maternal and child health, particularly in relation to expertise in intervention development and measurement. Karen is based in the School of Public Health, University College Cork Ireland. She is a Health Research Board Research Fellow, and a Royal Irish Academy Charlemont Fellow. Karen has previously received early career awards from the European Health Psychology Society and the Psychological Society of Ireland Division of Health Psychology. Karen’s main trial methodology interests and expertise include development, and implementation of interventions, and in out-come related research. She has particular expertise in core outcome sets and collaborates with members of the HRB-TMRN, MRC-TMRP, COMET, and COSMIN on core outcome related research.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Moderator

Dr. Vallis is a registered health psychologist based in Halifax, Canada. He is a Health Behaviour Change Consultant and Associate Professor in Family Medicine at Dalhousie University. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.A from the University of Western Ontario, London, and his B. Sc. From Dalhousie University. His main area of expertise is adult health psychology, with an emphasis on obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular risk and gastroenterology. He has worked in the public health system for 35 years, where he developed the Behaviour Change Institute, and is now working as a consultant and doing private practice. He spends most of his time training healthcare providers in behaviour change for chronic disease management. He regularly supervises clinical and academic students at Dalhousie and is active in research on motivation, behavioural change and adaptation to chronic disease.  He consults nationally as well as internationally and is heavily involved in academic publications, journal editing, and clinical practice guidelines. He is on the executive of the Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Obesity (in preparation) and is an author of the Behavioural Chapter for these new guidelines as well as the 2006 guidelines.  As well, he is an author of the Psychology and Mental Health chapter of Diabetes Canada’s Clinical Practice Guidelines (2018, 2013, 2004). He was recently awarded a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Government of Canada on the recommendation of the Canadian Diabetes Association.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Chair

Sherry H. Stewart, Ph.D., is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Addictions and Mental Health and a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, and Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University. Dr. Stewart is a recently inducted Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is respected internationally for her research on psychosocial and motivational factors contributing to emotional disorders, addictive disorders, and their co-occurrence. With funding from Tri-Council research agencies (e.g., SSHRC; CIHR), she has developed/evaluated novel interventions for these disorders including substance use prevention programs for youth. Dr. Stewart founded the Centre for Addiction Research at Dalhousie (CARD), a virtual centre at Dalhousie fostering collaborations among faculty members conducting research on addictions. She is also on the steering committee of the Quebec-Atlantic node of the CIHR-funded Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM) as well as the CRISM national executive committee.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Chair

Dr. Nicola McCleary is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada and Deputy Lead of the Psychology and Health Research Group at the Ottawa Hospital. Nicola’s research applies theories and methods from health psychology and implementation science to support healthcare professional behaviour change, and she is particularly interested in understanding the influence of habit on the provision of healthcare. She has experience in conducting process evaluations alongside trials to understand mechanisms of impact of behaviour change interventions. In 2019 Nicola was awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Health Systems Impact Fellowship, through which she is collaborating with the Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association (EORLA) to evaluate interventions to improve laboratory test ordering practices across 16 hospitals in Eastern Ontario.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Moderator

Dr. Marie Johnston is a Health Psychologist, and Emeritus Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Aberdeen. She publishes research on behaviour change in health and healthcare contexts and on disability (theory, measurement and intervention). Her previous posts were at the University of St Andrews, London University and Oxford University. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Moderator

Anne H. Berman s a clinical psychologist in addictive behaviors, with a research focus on assessment and low-threshold digital treatment of addiction within a behavioral medicine perspective. Her overall research goal is to reduce the treatment gap which arises when people with signs and symptoms of problematic addictive behaviors, as well as mental health issues, remain unaware of their inner experiences as problems that can be assessed and treated, and do not seek help. Based at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University, she leads a research group on digital interventions for problematic substance use, building and evaluating the components of a stepped care model, including alcohol, drugs and gambling. She worked as a psychotherapist in the Stockholm Center for Dependency Disorders for 10 years, and then as director of the Swedish National Helpline for problem gamblers and their family members, currently serving as a scientific advisor for the helpline. Anne has authored over 90 publications, including 78 peer-review articles, 4 books and 10 book chapters. Through her a longstanding interest in behavioral medicine, she has produced a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on behavioral medicine, KIBEHMEDx, available without cost on the edX.org platform. She was honored by a Distinguished Career Contribution Award in Behavioral Medicine in 2018 and is currently President-Elect for the International Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Moderator

Robert West is Professor of Health Psychology at University College London, UK. and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Addiction. He specialises in addiction and behaviour change. He undertook his BSc and PhD in Psychology at University College London. Between his BSc and PhD he worked for the Minister of Defence. After his PhD he worked as a Research Associate at the Addiction Research Unity of the Institute of Psychiatry from where he took up a post as lecturer at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London. From there he took up a post at St George’s Hospital Medical School where he worked for 15 years before moving to University College London. Robert West helped to create the blueprint for the NHS stop-smoking services, acted as advisor to Public Health England on its tobacco control strategy, was elected President of the Society for the Study of Nicotine and Tobacco Research, was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Addiction, authored more than 800 scientific articles, authored several books, including ‘Theory of Addiction’, ‘The SmokeFree Formula’, ‘The Behaviour Change Wheel’, and ‘Energise: The Secrets of Motivation’.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Moderator

Dr. Linda Carlson holds the Enbridge Research Chair in Psychosocial Oncology, is Full Professor in Psychosocial Oncology in the Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology. She is the Director of Research and works as a Clinical Psychologist at the Department of Psychosocial Resources at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre (TBCC), where she has worked since 1997. She also holds a CIHR SPOR-funded mentorship chair in innovative clinical trials, which funds the TRACTION program (Training in Research And Clinical Trials in Integrative Oncology), supporting a multidisciplinary group of University of Calgary fellows studying Integrative Oncology.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Session Chair

Dr. Pfammatter is an Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a Licensed Clinical Health Psychologist with expertise in optimization research methodology and development of mobile health interventions. Her research focuses on multiple health behavior change to treat and prevent chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease. Her clinical expertise is in behavioral weight management.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Michael A. Diefenbach, Ph.D., is Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Urology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University and the Feinstein Institutes at Northwell Health, New York. He is deputy director of the Center of Health Innovation and Outcomes Research at Northwell Health, Co-leader of the Cancer Prevention Program at the Monter Cancer Center, and Director of Behavioral Research in the Departments of Medicine and Urology. For the past 25 years his research has focused on exploring psychosocial issues among prostate, bladder, and breast cancer patients. This has included the assessment of cognitive and affective factors in reaction to disease and treatment, their influence on treatment decision making, and the exploration of general and disease specific quality of life. Guided by a self-regulation theoretical framework, his research has alternated between the assessment of basic psychological phenomena and the development of applied interventions based on basic findings. His research has been continuously funded by the NCI, the DOD and the American Cancer Society. Dr. Diefenbach has a long history of service to the behavioral medicine and academic community. He regularly serves on NIH study sections and is the senior associate editor of Translational Behavioral Medicine. He is the primary author of the recently published Handbook of Health Decision Science and is the immediate past-President of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr Margaret Nampijja is a Medical Doctor and a researcher in early childhood development currently working with the African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery from Makerere University, Kampala, and a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Lancaster University, UK. She is one of the very few clinical developmental psychologists in the African region. She has won distinctions, several prestigious awards, and has several papers to her name. She is a Fellow with the Wellcome Trust funded Makerere University UVRI Infection & Immunity (MUII) Fellowship Program, and with the African Research Leadership Excellence Program. Dr Nampijja has a long experience in clinical and child development research; she has led and collaborated on several studies focusing on the impact of infectious and non-infectious diseases on early childhood developmental outcomes. Through her work, she aims to make significant scientific and public health contributions towards optimizing the development of children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Marie-Pierre Gagnon, PhD, is Full Professor at the Faculty of Nursing at Laval University and scientist at the VITAM Research Center in Sustainable Health, and the Quebec University Hospital Centre. Since 2012, she holds the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Technologies and Practices in Health. Her research program focuses on the evaluation of digital health technologies, the organisational, professional and individual determinants of digital health adoption and integration in the healthcare system, patient and public involvement in healthcare decisions, systematic reviews and best practices in knowledge translation and application.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Moderator

Dr. Vera Araujo Soares is a Professor of Health Psychology and Public Health in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, UK. She is the 14th President of the European Health Psychology Society. Dr. Araujo Soares completed her studies at Minho University in Portugal where she worked as an academic and a clinician. In 2006 she moved to Aberdeen as Senior Research Fellow in the Scottish Alliance for Self-Care Research before moving to Newcastle in 2010. Her research targets the development and assessment of evidence-based interventions for the promotion of health behaviours, prevention and self-management of chronic conditions. She has published in leading international journals including the BMJ, Pain, Health Psychology and Health Psychology Review. She is passionate about translating theory and empirical evidence into practice and by doing so, refining theory. She is committed to open and transparent conduct/reporting of research. She is also a committed teacher and supervisor.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr Jovana Stojanovic is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Applied Physiology at Concordia University. Jovana has a doctorate in public health and masters in epidemiology focusing on health promotion and cancer prevention. Her current work explores the topic of data harmonization across longitudinal studies on ageing with a particular focus on physical activity and sedentary behavior. Her additional research interests include evidence summaries methodology, individual patient data meta-analysis and health technology assessment.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr. Gordon is a Canada Research Chair in Women’s Mental Health and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Regina. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology at McGill University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Women’s Reproductive Mood Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the interaction between neuroendocrine and psychosocial contributors to the development of depression in the context of reproductive events, including the perinatal period, the menopause transition, and, most recently, in the context of infertility. Her work has been published in high impact journals, such as the American Journal of Psychiatry and JAMA Psychiatry, and is well funded by national agencies such as CIHR, NSERC, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr. John M. Ruiz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona where he serves as Director of the Health Psychology doctoral training program. Dr. Ruiz’s program of research examines the role of psychosocial factors on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk with an emphasis on biobehavioral mechanisms. In addition, he has recognized expertise in sociocultural aspects of racial/ethnic health disparities, particularly Hispanic/Latino health. Dr. Ruiz serves the field in multiple roles including as a permanent member of the NIH Behavioral Medicine Interventions and Outcomes (BMIO) study section, Senior Associate Editor of Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Member at large for the Society for Health Psychology, 2019-21 Program Chair for the American Psychosomatic Society, and President-Elect of the Behavioral Medicine Research Council (BMRC).

Confirmed Virtual Conference Moderator

Dr. Iveta Nagyova is the Head of the Department of Social and Behavioural Medicine at Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Slovakia (UPJS; sbm.upjs.sk). She is also the President of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA; eupha.org) and a member of the European Advisory Committee on Health Research (EACHR) at WHO/Europe. She graduated in Clinical Psychology at UPJS, obtained her PhD in Medical Sciences from the University of Groningen (RuG), the Netherlands, and received a postgraduate training at the University of Oxford within the Oxford International Primary Care Research Leadership Programme. Her research interests are in biobehavioural and psychosocial innovations in chronic condition prevention and management, non-pharmacological interventions, behaviour change, improvements in functional status and quality of life in patients with a chronic disease and their implications for integrated care. She is involved in academic publishing, supervision of clinical and academic PhD students at both UPJS and RuG, and knowledge translation. Apart from her international activities, she also serves as an advisor to the WHO Country Office in the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Ministry of Health in the field of chronic diseases, integrated care, behavioural insights, and public health.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Speaker

Dr. Joyce Dogba is trained as a physician in Togo. She holds a Master degree in health economics and a PhD in Public Health. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Emergency Medicine at Laval University. Her research agenda comprises evaluation of collaborative practices with patients-users in research and the education of health professionals. She is also interested in advancing stakeholders engagement science regarding how to meaningfully involve the underserved including immigrants in patient-oriented research. Joyce Dogba is a co-lead on patient engagement within the SRAP/SPOR Network in Diabetes and Related Complications.

Confirmed Virtual Conference Moderator

Andrea Tricco holds a MSc in Epidemiology and PhD in Population Health. She is a Scientist and Director of the Knowledge Synthesis Team in the Knowledge Translation Program of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health & Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation. She is also a Co-Director and Adjunct Associate Professor of the Queen’s Collaboration for Health Care Quality Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Centre of Excellence at Queen’s University.