Jonathan Bricker

Research

Advising notes:
I will be taking a student for Fall 2024. My primary faculty appointment and the location of my research lab is at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center—one of the world's leading cancer centers, home to 3 Nobel Laureates, and the partner with UW Medicine in providing cancer care. I seek graduate students who are passionate about and committed to clinical research and want to become an academic research scientist (e.g, professor at a university or research center). The unique experience of my lab is you would: (1) join a well-established NIH-funded professional research lab, (2) learn how to publish impactful scientific articles, (3) learn how to successfully write research training grants, and (4) see the high impact of psychological research beyond a traditional psychology department setting. Students interested in acceptance-based digital/telehealth treatments for tobacco use or obesity would be considered a fit. Rigorous psychological research has the potential to save thousands of lives. Come join us!
Research:
My lab develops and tests acceptance based therapies---which are contextualized form of modern cognitive behavioral therapy. We translate these therapies into digital and telehealth delivery platforms. The potential wide reach of these interventions is allowing behavioral therapies to positively impact people who might not otherwise have access to traditional forms of face-to-face therapy that have been the mainstay of traditional clinical training. One health behavior that is the single most preventable cause of premature death and human suffering is tobacco use. And a functionally related behavior that is now the third leading cause of premature death is obesity. To this end, my research team is focusing on designing and developing chatbot, smartphone app-delivered, and telephone coach-delivered contextual behavioral interventions for smoking cessation and for weight loss. Following our agile iterative user-centered design processes, we test these interventions in pilot and then full scale randomized controlled trials funded by research grants from the National Institutes of Health. Research aims include main outcome comparisons, mediators, moderators, intervention engagement, and therapeutic process predictors of outcome. Students become members of my multi-disciplinary team of research clinical psychologists, computer scientists, user centered design researchers, statisticians, clinicians, and administrators.