About the Speakers
Course Director & Speaker
Michael L. Perlis, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
Director, Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program, University of Pennsylvania
Adjunct Faculty, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania
Course Role: Dr. Perlis is the primary lecturer for the seminar. He developed the course five years ago to provide clinicians from all walks of professional life the education and tools they need to
provide CBT-I. Dr. Perlis has been continually updating the course material and course offerings since
2005. Over this course of this time the seminar has been given in venues around the world and has attracted increasingly multidisciplinary audiences. The seminar, according to Dr. Perlis, represents his best effort towards a singular goal: "Make CBT-I widely available".
Background: Dr. Perlis is internationally known for his work in the area of Behavioral Sleep Medicine
(BSM). He is a coauthor of the first text book in this field and he is the senior author of a published
CBT-I treatment manual and a larger text summarizing all BSM treatments. His research includes neurocognitive phenomena in insomnia, the cognitive and/or behavior effects of sedative hypnotics
and placebos, the development of alternative treatment approaches for insomnia, and sleep in
depression. His work has been, and continues to be, funded by the National Institutes of Health and he has published nearly 100 articles and chapters on the sleep research related topics.
In addition to his academic endeavors, he has served on the editorial boards of Sleep, the
Journal of Sleep Research, and the journal of Behavioral Sleep Medicine. Dr. Perlis has also
served as a member, or chair, of several committees and task forces of the Sleep Research
Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Currently, he is a founding member of
the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and serves as the society's first president (2010-2011).
Discussant
Donn Posner, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Brown University
Providence, RI
Director, Behavioral Sleep Medicine
The Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals
Course Role: Dr. Posner is nationally renown as a master CBT-I therapist and clinical educator. His role in the seminar, this year and over the course of the last three years, is to 1) provide the "in clinic point of view" on the didactic material being presented during the seminar, and 2) highlight and flesh out issues that arise during lectures or during the QnA components of the course. Dr. Posner is also available through out the seminar to provide one on one responses to questions and concerns.
Background: Dr. Posner has been actively engaged in the treatment of sleep- disordered patients for the past twenty-one years. He sees a wide variety of patients, including those with Primary and Co-morbid Insomnia, Circadian Rhythm Disorders, Sleep Apnea, and Narcolepsy. In addition, half of his practice is involved with anxiety disorders and the behavioral treatment of such problems as Panic Disorder, GAD, OCD, PTSD, and Social Phobia. For the last sixteen years he has served as the lead supervisor and mentor for a sleep medicine and anxiety disorders rotation in the Behavioral Medicine track of the Brown Clinical Psychology internship. He is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and became one of the first certified Behavioral Sleep Medicine specialists recognized by that group.
Consultant and Lecturer
Marnie G. Shanbhag, PhD, PA
Course Role: Dr. Shanbhag joins the course this year to provide information on practice management, marketing, and billing.
Background: Marnie Shanbhag is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Winter Park, Florida. Dr. Shanbhag specializes in health issues and corporate psychology and divides her time between counseling individuals, couples, and employees and providing consultation services to local companies. Prior to private practice, Dr. Shanbhag served as the Executive Director of a nonprofit agency coordinating maternal and child health systems and taught at the University of Florida.
Dr. Shanbhag graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and earned her doctorate from the University of Florida after completing her psychology residency at the South Texas Veteran’s Health Care System in San Antonio, Texas. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Florida Psychological Association, and serves on the Board of the Central Chapter of area psychologists. She can be reached at 407-644-5598 or MShanbhag@earthlink.net.
