Dr. Marci Lobel 

Distinguished Professor Marci Lobel directs the Stress And Reproduction (STAR) Lab.  She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Social Relations summa cum laude from Harvard University, and her PhD in Social Psychology (with minors in Health Psychology and Measurement) from the University of California, Los Angeles.  Her research focuses on conceptualization, measurement, and effects of stress on health, particularly women’s reproductive health.  She conducts research to address critical public health issues, including racial disparities in birth outcomes, psychological aspects of infertility and assisted reproductive technology, and rising rates of surgical delivery.  Dr. Lobel collaborates with scientists in Europe, Asia, and at other universities across the U.S.  She serves on the editorial boards of several journals and she teaches courses in Social Psychology, Stress and Coping, and the Psychology of Women’s Health.  Dr. Lobel has received a number of awards for her research, teaching, and service, including the Strickland Daniel Distinguished Mentoring Award from Division 35 of the American Psychological Association and the Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Psychological Association Committee on Women in Psychology.

 

Dr. Heidi Preis

Dr. Preis joined the STAR Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow. She earned her doctorate in Social Work from Tel Aviv University. Her doctoral dissertation focused on first-time mothers’ beliefs about birth and their actual birth experiences. In 2017, Dr. Preis was awarded a Rahamimoff Grant for young scientists from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation to work with Dr. Lobel. That collaboration laid the groundwork for a recent study (Preis, H., Lobel, M., & Benyamini, Y. [In press]. Between expectancy and experience: Testing a model of childbirth satisfaction. Psychology of Women Quarterly). In 2018, Dr. Preis was awarded the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship from Tel Aviv University to train with Dr. Lobel in the STAR Lab for a two-year period. Dr. Preis’s primary research interest is understanding risk factors for physical and mental health problems related to women’s reproductive health, especially how psychological and social context affects behaviors in the perinatal period. She has additional expertise in practice research where she utilizes robust measures to investigate the impact of medical and psychoeducational interventions in vulnerable populations. During her training period in the STAR Lab, she will spearhead research on psychosocial factors that contribute to the prenatal health behaviors of pregnant women who suffer from opioid use disorder.

 

Dr. Brittain Mahaffey

Brittain Mahaffey Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in the treatment of anxiety and stress disorders. Her research focuses on: (1) improving our understanding of risk for and resilience to the mental and physical health effects of stress and, (2) developing more effective and accessible interventions for stress and anxiety problems. More specifically, she is interested in the promotion of psychological resilience in at-risk populations and during sensitive periods such as pregnancy and the peripartum. Dr. Mahaffey is a research assistant professor at the Mind Body Clinical Research Center in the Stony Brook Medicine Department of Psychiatry. She is the operations manager for the Mind Body Center and directs their Women’s Health Program. Dr. Mahaffey is a co-investigator on several large federally funded grants aimed at developing resilience in vulnerable populations such as 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy Disaster Responders. She has also published over 25 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety and stress related disorders. She is the recipient of an award the National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program (2017-2019) for her outstanding program of research. She also recently received a K23 Mentored Career Development Award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Dr. Lobel serves as the primary mentor on this grant. This project will explore methods for improving mental health treatment engagement during pregnancy and evaluate the preliminary efficacy of an internet-delivered stress management program (SMART Pregnancy) for women with elevated prenatal maternal stress.