Alyssa M. Minnick, Ph.D

Alyssa M. Minnick, Ph.D is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, working with Thomas A. Wadden, Ph.D., Jena Shaw Tronieri, Ph.D., and Kelly C. Allison, Ph.D. She received her B.A. in Psychology (summa cum laude) from Dickinson College, her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Loyola University Maryland, and her Ph.D. in Health Psychology, with a clinical concentration, from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship at the Coatesville VA (Veteran Affairs) Medical Center, where she received training in CBT for Insomnia, as well as worked in primary care, outpatient general mental health, inpatient psychiatry, and outpatient services for serious mental illness. She has worked at CWED in multiple positions since 2014, first as a research coordinator and then as a doctoral practicum student extern before returning as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Minnick has worked on various studies within weight and eating disorders, including weight loss maintenance, a guided self-help program for binge eating, and predictors of binge eating behaviors among college men from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. She has also worked in multiple clinical settings, such as at a college counseling center, an inpatient medical rehabilitation center, and a VA medical center in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Minnick currently delivers behavioral weight loss treatment on two clinical trials and also conducts pre-bariatric surgery evaluations, in addition to working on other research projects and publications.

Dr. Minnick’s current research focuses on the intersection of weight and sleep. She is specifically interested in the impact of sleep interventions on weight loss, eating behavior, and cardiometabolic outcomes to understand if/how behavioral weight and sleep interventions may be combined to optimize weight loss and health outcomes. Her next step is to complete a T32 postdoctoral training program in chronobiology and sleep for additional training in the assessment and treatment of sleep, as well as their associations with weight, eating and metabolic factors.

Dr. Minnick can be contacted at: the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders, 3535 Market St, Suite 3032, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, 215-573-2517. Her email address is: alyssa.minnick@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Selected publications include:

Minnick, A. M., Hopkins, C. M., Allison, K. C., & McCuen-Wurst, M. (in press). Behavioral Health Assessment. In Raynor, H. A. and Gigliotti, L. (Ed.), Health Professionals Guide to Weight Management for Adults.

Ambwani, S. & Minnick, A. M. (2019). Mentoring emerging clinical scientists while maintaining scholarly productivity at a small liberal arts college. The Behavioral Therapist, 97-102.

Minnick, A.M., Cachelin, F. M., & Durvasula, R. (2017). Personality disorders and psychological functioning among Latina women with eating disorders. Behavioral Medicine, 43, 200-207.

Regan, P., Cachelin, F. M., & Minnick, A. M. (2017). Initial treatment seeking from professional health care providers for eating disorders: A review and synthesis of potential barriers to and facilitators of “first contact.” International Journal of Eating Disorders, 50, 190-209.

Alfaris, A., Wadden, T. A., Sarwer, D. B., Diewald, L., Volger, S., Hong, P, Baxley, A., Minnick, A. M.,Vetter, M. L., Berkowitz, R. I., & Chittams, J. (2015). Effects of a two-year behavioral weight loss intervention on sleep and mood in obese individuals treated in primary care practice. Obesity (Silver Spring), 23, 558-564