Scientific Advisory Board
Board Members
- Nancy J. Keuthen, Ph.D., Advisory Chair
- Fred Penzel, Ph.D., Advisory Secretary
- Darin D. Dougherty, M.D, MSc
Christopher Flessner, P.h.D - Martin Franklin, Ph.D.
- Joseph Garner, Ph.D.
- Ruth Golomb, M.Ed., L.C.P.C.
- Jon E. Grant, J.D., M.D.
- Charles S. Mansueto, Ph.D.
- Suzanne Mouton-Odum, Ph.D.
- Carol Novak, M.D.
- David Pauls, Ph.D.
- John Piacentini, Ph.D.
- Dan Stein, M.D., Ph.D.
- John Walkup, M.D.
- Douglas Woods, Ph.D.
- Harry Wright, M.D., M.B.A.
Consulting Members
Board Member Biographies
Nancy J. Keuthen, Ph.D., Advisory Chair
Co-Director, Trichotillomania Clinic
Psychiatric Neuroscience Program
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA
Nancy J. Keuthen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School and staff psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital where she serves as the Co-Director of the Trichotillomania Clinic and the Chief Psychologist in the OCD Clinic. She sits on many editorial and scientific advisory boards, including the Trichotillomania Learning Center and the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation. She is currently Chair, and previously Vice-Chair, of the scientific advisory board of the Trichotillomania Learning Center.
Dr. Keuthen has pioneered considerable research in trichotillomania, skin picking, body dysmorphic disorder, and OCD, and authored many scholarly research papers and chapters. Dr. Keuthen has maintained broad research interests in the field of trichotillomania, including its longitudinal course and naturalistic treatment outcome, its phenomenology and psychosocial impact, the role of brain structure and function and neuropsychological profiles in the disorder, and its relationship with other obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. She has been involved in both pharmacological and cognitive-behavioral treatment outcome studies of trichotillomania and skin picking. In addition, she has been instrumental in the development and validation of numerous assessment instruments for both trichotillomania and pathological skin picking. Recently she launched a genetics investigation of trichotillomania, and is also investigating the efficacy of an augmented cognitive-behavioral treatment protocol for trichotillomania that includes affect regulation and relapse prevention skills.
Dr. Keuthen is the author of the popular book Help for Hairpullers. She has also co-authored Internet-based treatment programs for both trichotillomania and skin picking. She has authored many articles for the lay public and other medical professionals. She routinely presents at national and international conferences and local workshops on these topics, and has been interviewed on local and national television as an authority in her field.
Fred Penzel, Ph.D., Advisory Secretary
Director, Western Suffolk Psychological Services
Huntington, NY
Dr. Fred Penzel is a licensed psychologist who has specialized in the treatment of Trichotillomania and OCD since 1982. He is the executive director of Western Suffolk Psychological Services in Huntington, Long Island, New York, a private treatment group specializing in trich and O-C related problems, and is a founding member of the TLC Science Advisory Board. Dr. Penzel is the author of "The Hair Pulling Problem," a self-help book dedicated exclusively to trich, as well as "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders: A Complete Guide To Getting Well And Staying Well," a self-help work covering TTM and other O-C spectrum disorders. Dr. Penzel is also a frequent contributor to TLC's newsletter InTouch.
Darin Dougherty, M.D., MSc.
Director, Neurotherapeutics Division
Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Director, Psychiatric Neuroimaging Program
Director, Mood Disorders Section, Psychiatric Neuroimaging Program
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Darin D. Dougherty is the Director of the Neurotherapeutics Division in the Department of Psychiatry at MGH, the Director of the Mood Disorders Section of the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatric Neuroimaging Group, and the Associate Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatric Neuroimaging Group. Dr. Dougherty is also the Director of Medical Education at the Massachusetts General Hospital Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Institute and the Co-Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Trichotillomania Clinic. Additionally, Dr. Dougherty is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a Clinical Associate at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Visiting Scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Dougherty currently serves on the scientific advisory board for both the Anxiety Disorders Association of America and the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation. He serves on the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatric Neurosurgery Committee. He also serves on many editorial boards and award committees. He has given over a hundred invited lectures and presentations, and is a current member of many professional societies. In 2003 Dr. Dougherty was awarded a NARSAD Young Investigator Award. In 2005 he was named one of the Future Leaders in Psychiatry. Dr. Dougherty has co-authored over 40 original articles in peer-reviewed journals, over 40 book chapters and review articles, and has co-edited two books on neuroimaging. Currently Dr. Dougherty is the Principal Investigator or co-Principal Investigator on several government and industry funded studies investigating neuroimaging and medication and neurosurgery treatments of OCD and mood disorders.
Dr. Dougherty received his MD from the University of Illinois and completed his residency in general psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a graduate of the Clinical Investigator Training Program at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Dougherty’s research interests include neuroimaging, neurobiology, psychopharmacology, and neurotherapeutic (device and/or surgical) interventions for the treatment of treatment-refractory psychiatric illness.
Christopher Flessner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Kent State University
Kent, OH
Dr. Flessner received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2008. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Kent State University. He is recipient of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Loan Repayment Program award for individuals devoted to conducting clinical research. In the past, he has also received funding from the TLC Grants program. Dr. Flessner’s research interests include examining the pathogenesis and treatment of childhood anxiety and obsessive-compulsive (OC)-spectrum disorders, particularly hair pulling disorder (trichotillomania), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and tic disorders. Dr. Flessner is the director of a specialty clinic at Kent State University devoted to the research and treatment of these conditions. He has published over 50 empirical articles and book chapters examining anxiety and OC-spectrum disorders
Martin Franklin, Ph.D.
Director, Child and Adolescent OCD, Tic, Trich & Anxiety Group (COTTAGe)
Associate Professor, Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA
Martin E. Franklin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry, has served as a co-investigator on several NIMH-funded RCTs and as a Principal Investigator was funded by NIMH to conduct a pediatric TTM R21 treatment development study that is now completed. In addition, he is now the PI on: 1) an NIMH-funded multi-center R01 in pediatric OCD examining CBT augmentation in SRI partial responders, 2) an NIMH-funded multi-center R01 examining treatments for very young children with OCD; 3) a pilot study of habit reversal training (HRT) for tic disorders in adolescents and young adults funded by the Tourette Syndrome Association; and 4) an NIMH-funded study of HRT for pediatric trichotillomania in youths ages 10-17. With respect to TTM specifically, Dr. Franklin published theoretical (e.g., Franklin, Tolin, & Diefenbach, 2006), clinical (e.g., Cardona & Franklin, 2004), and empirical (e.g., Flessner et al., 2008; Franklin et al., 2008; Hajcak et al., 2006; Woods et al., 2006a) papers and chapters, as well as a treatment manual based largely on the R21project (Franklin & Tolin, 2007). Dr. Franklin also served on the scientific panel for a 2004 NIMH-sponsored conference entitled, "Scientific Advances in Trichotillomania and Related Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors," the goal of which was to identify promising approaches and opportunities applicable to clinical research in TTM and to highlight avenues for further development (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/scientificmeetings/trichotillomania.pdf). He is the Research Committee Chair of the TLC's Scientific Advisory Board, and in that capacity helped spearhead the Trichotillomania Impact Project.
Joseph Garner, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Medicine
Courtesy Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University
Veterinary Service Center,
Stanford, CA
Joe studied for a BA in zoology at the University of Oxford, UK. He stayed at Oxford for his Ph.D., which examined abnormal repetitive behaviors in animals and their connections to human symptoms. His lab is currently working with hair plucking and excessive scratching behaviors in mice as models of trichotillomania and skin picking, respectively. The ultimate goal of his trichotillomania research is to understand why some at-risk individuals (for instance, the sister or daughter of a patient) do not develop trichotillomania, and to use this knowledge to design preventative interventions that might protect at-risk children.
Ruth Golomb, M.Ed., L.C.P.C.
Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington
Silver Spring, MD
Ruth Goldfinger Golomb, L.C.P.C., is a senior clinician, supervisor, and co-director of the doctoral training program at the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington, where she has worked since the mid-1980s. Ms. Golomb specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adults. She has conducted numerous workshops and seminars, and participated as an expert in panel discussions covering many topics, including Tourette's Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Trichotillomania, and managing anxiety disorders in the classroom. In addition to publishing articles for professional journals and newsletters, Ms. Golomb is an author of "The Hair Pulling 'Habit' and You: How to Solve the Trichotillomania Puzzle," a book describing the comprehensive treatment of trichotillomania in children, and "Stay Out of My Hair," a book aimed to help parents of children with trichotillomania. Ms. Golomb is member of the Science Advisory Board for The Trichotillomania Learning Center.
Jon E. Grant, M.D., J.D., MPH
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Minnesota Medical Center
Minneapolis, MN
Dr. Grant is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota and co-directs a clinic for Impulse Control Disorders at the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Grant completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan, a master's degree at the University of Chicago, a law degree from Cornell University, a medical degree from Brown University, and a masters degree in public health from Harvard University. Dr. Grant is a board-certified psychiatrist.
Dr. Grant has written over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on the phenomenology and pharmacological management of impulse control disorders, particularly pathological gambling, kleptomania, and grooming disorders. He is the author of Stop Me Because I Can't Stop Myself, a book on impulse control disorders published by McGraw-Hill (2002) (co-authored with Dr. Suck Won Kim), and co-editor (along with Marc Potenza) of two books published by the American Psychiatric Association Pathological Gambling: A Clinical Guide to Treatment (2004) and A Textbook of Men's Mental Health (in press). Dr. Grant's research is funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health.
Charles S. Mansueto, Ph.D., Director
Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington
Silver Spring, MD
Charles S. Mansueto, PhD, is founder and director of the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he has been involved in the study and treatment of hundreds of BFRB sufferers. He is a founding member of TLC's Scientific Advisory Board and also serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation and the Tourette Syndrome Association of Greater Washington. He is past professor of psychology at Bowie State University, Maryland and is on the clinical faculty of the American School of Professional Psychology of Argosy University, Virginia. He chaired the first national symposium on TTM in 1990 and continues to investigate, publish, and speak about the disorder. For more information about the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington, visit the website at www.behaviortherapycenter.com.
Suzanne Mouton-Odum, Ph.D.
Private Practice
Houston, TX
Suzanne Mouton-Odum, Ph.D., is a psychologist in private practice in Houston, Texas. She obtained her doctoral degree from the University of Houston in Counseling Psychology and completed her residency in Clinical Psychology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. She has treated people with trich and other body-focused repetitive behaviors since 1993, and has been a member of the Trichotillomania Learning Center Scientific Advisory Board since 2001. Dr. Mouton-Odum regularly attends and presents at the TLC Annual Conference and Retreat. She is the co-owner and lead developer of the only interactive, online website for trichotillomania, www.stoppulling.com, and for skin picking disorders, www.stoppicking.com. She is happily married and lives in Houston with her husband and two children.
Carol Novak, M.D.
Assistant Medical Director, BH Division
HealthPartners medical group
Minneapolis, MN
Carol Novak, MD, is the Outpatient Medical Director of HealthPartners/Regions Behavioral Health in Minneapolis and St. Paul. She has treated several hundred patients with trichotillomania and skin picking since 1989 with both medication and behavioral therapy. She has been active with the Trichotillomania Learning Center since its inception and was the founding director of their Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Novak published a twin study showing that there is a strong genetic origin of trichotillomania (Novak CE, Keuthen NJ, Stewart SE, Pauls DL; A twin concordance study of trichotillomania. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2009 Oct 5;150B(7):944-9).
David Pauls, Ph.D.
Psychiatric & Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA
John Piacentini, Ph.D.
Director, UCLA Child OCD Anxiety and Tic Disorders Program
UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience
Professor, Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute
Los Angeles, CA
John Piacentini, Ph.D., A.B.P.P., is Professor and Director of the Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Georgia and completed post-doctoral training at Columbia University/NY State Psychiatric Institute where he also served as a faculty member for several years. Dr. Piacentini has written or co-written treatment manuals for childhood OCD and tic disorders, and has written numerous research papers and book chapters on childhood anxiety, OCD, tic disorders, and trichotillomania. He has also received a number of research grants to study treatments for the above disorders and lectures frequently on this topic. http://www.npi.ucla.edu/caap/
Dan Stein, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health
University of Capetown
South Africa
John Walkup, M.D.
Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Johns Hopkins Medical Institute
Baltimore, MD
Douglas Woods, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Associate Dean of Social Sciences, Education and Business, The Graduate School
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI
Dr. Doug Woods received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Western Michigan University in 1999. He is a recognized expert in the assessment and treatment of tic disorders and trichotillomania and is currently Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Training at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Woods has authored or co-authored over 110 papers and chapters. He has edited seven books describing behavioral interventions for Tic Disorders and Trichotillomania and another book on contemporary behavior analytic models of psychiatric disorders. He has presented his work nationally and internationally, with over 170 conference presentations and invited talks, is on the Editorial Boards of seven different journals, and has served as an ad hoc reviewer for over 28 different journals across the disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, pharmacology, and neurology. Dr. Woods is the first psychologist ever to serve as a member of the Tourette Syndrome Association's (TSA) Medical Advisory Board, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Trichotillomania Learning Center (TLC). He has been funded by the TSA Grants program, TLC Grants program, and is currently funded by the NIH as part of two separate multisite research projects investigating the efficacy of behavior therapy for children and adults with Tourette Syndrome.
Harry Wright, M.D., M.B.A.
NeuroPsychiatry & Behavioral Science
University of South Carolina School of Medicine
Columbia, SC
Harry Wright, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, is a professor in the Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the School of Medicine, University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina.
Dr. Wright received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of South Carolina. He did graduate work in physical chemistry at Brown University, completed his M.D. from the School of Medicine, and earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed residencies in administrative, general, and child and adolescent psychiatry in Philadelphia, PA, and Columbia, SC.
Dr. Wright has contributed to more than 200 publications and has made more than 500 presentations at scientific meetings.
Consulting Member Biographies
Ethan Lerner, M.D., Ph.D.
Deptartment of Dermatology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Charlestown, MA
Ethan Lerner, M.D., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and runs a basic science research group at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. His primary research interest is to understand the fundamental mechanisms that lead to the sensation of itch.
Philip T. Ninan, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Director, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, GA
Barbara O. Rothbaum, Ph.D.
Professor in Psychiatry
Director, Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, GA
Barbara Olasov Rothbaum received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is currently a professor in psychiatry at the Emory School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and director of the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program at Emory. Dr. Rothbaum specializes in research on the treatment of individuals with anxiety disorders, particularly focusing on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and trichotillomania. She has won both state and national awards for her research, is an invited speaker internationally, authors scientific papers and chapters, has published or edited 6 books, and received the Diplomate in Behavioral Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. Dr. Rothbaum is also a pioneer in the application of virtual reality to the treatment of psychological disorders.
Susan E. Swedo, M.D.
Behavioral Pediatrics Section
Pediatrics and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch, NIMH
Bethesda, MD
Margo Thienemann, M.D.
Stanford University Medical Center Psychiatry & Behavioral Science
Stanford, CA
- Mission & History
- What We Offer
- Our Founder
- Board & Staff
- Scientific Advisory Board
- Partners
- E-Lerts
- TLC Blog
- Contact Us
Christina PearsonAfter years of suffering alone, Christina set out to change the world for hair pullers and skin pickers. |