CPR Faculty

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• Paul F. Crits-Christoph, PhD (Director)
• Jacques P. Barber, PhD, ABPP (Associate Director)
• Marna S. Barrett, PhD
• Mary Beth Connolly Gibbons, PhD
• Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, PhD

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Paul F. Crits-Christoph, PhD (Director)
Paul Crits-Christoph received his PhD in Psychology (Clinical) from Yale University in 1984 and has been on the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania since completing his degree. He is currently professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and director of the Center for Psychotherapy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an author of over 160 journal articles, over 50 book chapters, and 5 books on topics related to research on the process and outcome of Psychotherapy. After receiving the Early Career Award (1992) from the International Society for Psychotherapy Research, he subsequently served (1996) as president of the Society. In addition, he has been on the editorial board of five journals. His primary interests are in the process and outcome of psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral treatments for anxiety, affective and personality disorders, psychosocial treatments for substance use disorders, and methodological and statistical issues in treatment research. More recently he has been focusing on research on treatments for depression and substance use disorders in community settings.

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Jacques P. Barber, PhD, ABPP (Associate Director)
Jacques P. Barber is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and an Adjunct Foreign Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He conducts efficacy and effectiveness studies of cognitive, dynamic therapy and interpersonal psychotherapies for depression, panic disorder, cocaine dependence and personality disorders. He investigates the mechanisms and processes of changes in these therapies, focusing on the role of the therapeutic relationship and specific therapeutic techniques and how they are associated with outcome. He also studies the role of interpersonal problems, meta cognition, and core conflicts in different populations. He is also involved in the training of Psychiatry Residents and of Clinical Psychology Graduate Students at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a past president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research.

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Marna S. Barrett, PhD
Marna S. Barrett, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her main research interests are in the area of therapist characteristics, attrition, and psychotherapy outcome. Her current studies include investigations of factors predictive of early engagement and attrition in community mental health settings, cultural influences on mental health service use, and the use of a modified motivational interviewing to increase commitment to treatment. In addition to her research efforts, Dr. Barrett supervises PGY4 psychiatry residents in psychotherapy, teaches the residency ethics curriculum with Dr. Paul Wolpe from the Bioethics Center, and maintains a clinical practice where she specializes in the treatment of depression and Bipolar disorder.

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Mary Beth Connolly Gibbons, PhD
Mary Beth Connolly Gibbons is an assistant professor at the Center for Psychotherapy Research in the Department of Psychiatry. She is currently funded by two federal grants to study the effectiveness of interventions for depression in the community mental health system. Her studies evaluate the comparative efficacy of psychotherapies in the treatment of major depressive disorder and the effectiveness of a therapist electronic feedback system in the community. Her interests include training of therapists in community settings, disseminating and evaluating the efficacy of interventions in community mental health, and evaluating the mechanisms of treatment effects. In addition to research, she is also involved in training psychiatry residents in models of time-limited, relationship-focused psychotherapy.

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Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, PhD
Shannon Wiltsey Stirman received her PhD in clinical psychology form the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. She completed an internship at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System before entering Postdoctoral training with Dr. Aaron T. Beck. She has recently received funding through an NIMH-funded Pathway to Independence Career Development Award (K99), with Drs. Crits-Christoph, Beck, and John Kimberly (at Penn’s Wharton School) to develop a program of research that employs mixed-methods research strategies, theories of dissemination and organizational change to examine. Dr. Stirman also serves as the program director of the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health/University of Pennsylvania's Beck Initiative, a cognitive therapy training program for community mental health clinicians. Dr. Stirman has recently taken a faculty position at Boston University/Boston VA but continues her work at the Center for Psychotherapy Research at Penn.

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