Team

Dr. Ritterband is the Jean and Ronald Butcher Eminent Scholars Professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Behavioral Health and Technology. He has served as Principal Investigator on a number of National Institutes of Health grants focused on SHUTi. With degrees in clinical psychology and computer technology, Dr. Ritterband specializes in the development and testing of behaviorally-based digital health interventions. Over the past two decades, Dr. Ritterband has established himself as one of the leading researchers in Internet health interventions. He has been a Principal or Co-Investigator on large research projects funded by multiple institutes of the National Institutes of Health; the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute; the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia); National Science Foundation; Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Danish Cancer Council, Norwegian Institute of Public Health; the American Diabetes Association; and various US State and commercial entities. In 2004, he co-founded the International Society for Research on Internet interventions which is the leading international organization focused on Internet intervention research. Dr. Ritterband is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and a past editor of the journals Health Psychology and the Journal of Medical Internet Research. He has given numerous talks nationally and internationally on the use of the Internet in psychological research and clinical practice. Dr. Ritterband is also a co-founder of BeHealth Solutions, LLC, a company dedicated to increasing public access to evidence-based Internet delivered health interventions.

Dr. Thorndike is committed to developing, evaluating and disseminating interventions which utilize technology to improve health outcomes. Until 2016, Dr. Thorndike was a faculty member at the University of Virginia Health System in the Behavioral Health and Technology program area. At that time, she became Chief Science Officer of BeHealth Solutions, LLC, a company formed to broadly disseminate the technology-based interventions shown to improve health. She is currently the Vice President of Medical and Scientific Affairs at Nox Health, a global leader in sleep diagnostics and delivery of sleep care. Dr. Thorndike obtained her PhD in clinical psychology in 2004 from American University and then completed a three-year fellowship at the University of Virginia Health System, focusing on the use of technology to extend the reach of proven behavioral interventions. Her research interests include the development and evaluation of Internet interventions for various medical and behavioral health problems, including insomnia, post-traumatic stress, cancer, encopresis, and diabetes. She has been conducting research in the field of Internet interventions since 2002 and working on research related to SHUTi since 2004.

Dr. Morin is a Professor of Psychology at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada, and Director of the Sleep Research Center. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Behavioral Sleep Medicine and is a past President of the World Sleep Society. He has directed an active clinical research program on insomnia over the past 30+ years, and has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health since 1988. Dr. Morin is one of the foremost experts in the field of insomnia, and has particular expertise in Cognitive Behavioral Treatment (CBT) for insomnia. He is an associate editor for two prominent journals in the field, Sleep and Behavioral Sleep Medicine, and has published 6 books and over 250 articles and book chapters. Dr. Morin has collaborated with the Center for Behavioral Health and Technology team at UVA since 2003. The SHUTi Internet intervention is based on Dr. Morin’s CBT program for insomnia.

Dr. Gonder-Frederick is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences and former Clinical and Training Director of the Behavioral Medicine Center at the University of Virginia Health System which houses the Insomnia Clinic. She is an expert in treating individuals with insomnia using CBT-I and served on the Sleep Medicine board at UVA. In addition, Dr. Gonder-Frederick was a key co-investigator on the development and subsequently testing of SHUTi. She has also participated in the development of several other internet interventions and was a co-investigator on the American Diabetes Association funded Blood Glucose Awareness Training Internet intervention (BGATHome) project as well as the subsequent translation of BGAT to an intervention for women with type 1 diabetes who are anticipating or experiencing pregnancy (Bump2be), the NICHD funded pediatric encopresis Internet intervention projects, and the nationwide clinical trial of the Driving with Diabetes Internet Intervention (DiabetesDriving.com).

Dr. Ingersoll is a clinical health psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. She has led projects funded by CDC, NIMH, NIDA, and NIAAA. Dr. Ingersoll has over two decades as a clinical psychologist and behavioral scientist developing and evaluating psychological and medical interventions for people with medical conditions complicated by behavioral health challenges such as insomnia, pain, alcohol use, medication nonadherence, and barriers to treatment such as rural location, difficulty accessing care, and poverty. For the last decade, Dr. Ingersoll has tested using technology to reach more people who need access to effective care, including several SHUTi projects.  

Dr. Cohn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences in the Divisions of Clinical Informatics and Public Health Practice at the University of Virginia Health System. Her main areas of expertise and interest are in program evaluation, outcomes research, public health, epidemiology, and qualitative research.

Dr. Hilgart is an experienced instructional designer and researcher. She has a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin (1993), a master's degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Virginia (2004), and a doctoral degree in Instructional Sciences and Technology from the University of Virginia (2013). For the past 15+ years, Dr. Hilgart has contributed to the development of internet interventions to improve health outcomes for populations with insomnia, spinal cord injury, type 1 diabetes, and cancer. She coordinated the iSHIFTup project and study for adults with spinal cord injury, funded by the Virginia Commonwealth Neurotrauma Initiative. Dr. Hilgart has a strong interest in the application of instructional design models in the development of internet interventions for health behavior change.