Tricia M. Leahey, PhD

InCHIP Director, Professor of Allied Health Sciences

Department of Allied Health Sciences

Research Overview

Dr. Tricia Leahey is a Professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences and Co-Director of the UConn Weight Management Research Group. She completed her clinical psychology internship and post-doctoral fellowship at Brown University with specializations in behavioral medicine and lifestyle interventions for obesity treatment. Dr. Leahey is a leader in the field of behavioral interventions for weight loss and weight loss maintenance. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating novel, cost-effective lifestyle interventions for obesity treatment. Dr. Leahey is currently PI or Co-I on several NIH-funded trials that examine the effects of m-health / e-health interventions, peer support, and behavioral economics strategies (e.g., episodic future thinking, contingency management) on weight loss or weight maintenance in diverse populations. Her research also examines the utility and effectiveness of methodological aspects of clinical trial methodology, including remote trial procedures.

Dr. Leahey’s research has been continuously funded by the NIH throughout her career. She was a standing member of the NIH’s Psychosocial Risk and Disease Prevention Study Section, has served as Chair or Co-Chair of NIH grant review panels, reviews for over 30 scientific journals, has numerous publications, and serves on the editorial board for several journals. Dr. Leahey has been core faculty for the past ten years at the NIH’s Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials which prepares junior faculty and postdoctoral fellows to lead rigorous, high-impact behavioral trials. Dr. Leahey has received several awards for her research including from international scientific communities such as The Obesity Society and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. She has also been recognized for both her teaching and mentorship and has received UConn’s Teaching Excellence Award and Brown University’s Psychology Research Mentor Award. Her research findings have been featured by major news outlets including NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, ABC News, Forbes, and The Huffington Post.

Education

B.A., 2002, Psychology, SUNY Binghamton
M.A., 2004, Clinical Psychology, Kent State University
Ph.D., 2008, Clinical Health Psychology, Kent State University
Pre-doctoral internship, Brown Medical School, 2008
Post-doctoral fellowship, Brown Medical School, 2010

Recent/Selected Publications

PubMed