Deborah Friedman, PhD

Co-Principle Investigator

Dr. Friedman is a clinical psychologist and researcher in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Psychiatry and Assistant Professor of Psychology (Psychiatry) at Harvard Medical School. She serves as the consulting psychologist for the MGH Pediatric and Adult Cystic Fibrosis Programs, and co-director of the MGH Pediatric Behavioral Medicine Program. Her clinical research focuses on developing telehealth and digital health interventions that can be integrated into interdisciplinary team-based care to improve mental health and quality of life for people with CF.  Dr. Friedman is the author of the CF-CBT program for adults with CF and CF-CBT-A for adolescents with CF and their caregivers. These mental health interventions were developed and trialed in partnership with this incredible team and with stakeholder input from people with CF, caregivers, and CF healthcare providers.

Anna Georgiopoulos, MD

Co-Principle Investigator

Dr. Georgiopoulos is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Part-time, at Harvard Medical School. A child & adolescent, adult and consultation-liaison psychiatrist, she has been integrated in the Massachusetts General Hospital Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Center since 2005. Dr. Georgiopoulos is inaugural Chair of the CF Foundation Prioritizing Research in Mental Health Working Group (PRIME), chairs the Education & Training subgroup of the CF Foundation Mental Health Advisory Committee, and is a member of the CF Foundation Sexual Health, Reproduction, and Gender Research Working Group (SHARING). She serves as US liaison to the European CF Society Mental Health in the Era of CF Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) Modulators Working Group. Her clinical research focus is to investigate the psychiatric complications of CF and its treatments, and to develop systems of care to improve the physical and emotional wellness of people with CF throughout the lifespan, through cross-disciplinary, international collaborations. Dr. Georgiopoulos leads studies in CF mental health and palliative care, including as co-Principal Investigator for CF-CBT.  

Ruobin Wei, MPH

Clinical Research Coordinator

Ruobin Wei has a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is interested in the intersection of weight management, weight stigma, and mental health. Ruobin joined the MGH Cystic Fibrosis Mental Health team in March 2023 as a Clinical Research Coordinator. In this role, she has supported the planning and delivery of the CF-CBT virtual training. Additionally, Ruobin has developed and maintained the CF-CBT implementation study data collection tool, managed the CF-CBT implementation study recruitment, and interacted with current participants. Ruobin also facilitated the CF-CBT implementation study data collection, data analysis, as well as abstract and poster preparation. 

Nivedita Chaudhary, BDS, MPH

Project Manager

Nivedita is the Project Manager for the MGH Cystic Fibrosis Mental Health Team. She is the lead biostatistical data, regulatory and grants manager for investigator-initiated single- and multi-center cystic fibrosis mental health and palliative care clinical studies. She has advanced knowledge of statistical programming and has keen interest in developing and managing analytical work plans for several mental health databases.

Tara Mullen, BA

Clinical Research Coordinator

Tara graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology from Bowdoin College and completed her honors thesis on psychosis screening of adolescent and young adult populations. She subsequently joined the MGH Cystic Fibrosis Mental Health team in July 2023 as a Clinical Research Coordinator. In this role, she has developed several logos and websites for the team’s projects, including the CF-CBT logo and website. Tara worked with Ruobin and Nivi to support the planning and delivery of the CF-CBT virtual training. Additionally, Tara has worked on CF-CBT implementation data analysis, including preparing a poster for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 2024 conference.  

Meg Dvorak, LCSW

Expert Consultant

Meg is a social worker at the Stanford Health Care Adult CF program since 2010. Meg joined the CF-CBT study team in 2018 for the initial pilot study as an interventionist and is now involved as an “expert consultant” in the implementation study. Meg has a private practice working with teens and adults facing a variety of health and mental health challenges. Meg is actively involved in the national CF community, facilitating monthly virtual support groups for adults and caregivers, giving talks and moderating workshops for different CF groups.

Beth Smith, MD

Expert Consultant

Beth is a Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Interim Chair at the Department of Psychiatry, and Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Beth is also the lead of the screening workgroup on the International Committee on Mental Health in CF, co-author of the CFF/ECFS Consensus Statements for Depression and Anxiety, and Chair of the CFF Mental Health Advisory Committee. Beth has conducted research in depression and adherence in individuals with CF and their caregivers, interventions for depression and anxiety in CF, implementation of the mental health in CF guidelines.

Amanda Bruce, PhD

Expert Consultant

Amanda has been a clinical psychologist with the Adult CF team at the University of Kansas Medical Center since 2016. Amanda is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Kansas Medical Center and the principal investigator for KUMC’s Success with therapies research consortium (STRC) through CF Foundation. She has conducted research in health decision-making, diet and exercise choices, treatment adherence, and examination of psychological interventions for persons living with CF. Amanda is a co-investigator and interventionist on the CF-CBT project. In her free time, she enjoys doing yoga and gluten-free baking.

Yelizaveta Sher, MD 

Expert Consultant

Liza received her BA from UC Berkeley and MD from Washington University in St. Louis. She completed Residency in Psychiatry and Fellowship in Psychosomatic Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center. She has been a part of Psychosomatic Medicine Faculty, now a Division of Medical Psychiatry, at Stanford since 2013. Her areas of clinical and research interests include psychiatric comorbidities in patients with pulmonary disorders. In particular, she specializes in the mental health of patients with cystic fibrosis as well as lung and heart transplant patients. She consults on patients hospitalized in medical and surgical units as well as sees patients in outpatient clinics. She serves as the Director of Psychiatric and Psychological Services for the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic and Chief of Psychosomatic Medicine Clinic. She has published many articles and book chapters and edited several books related to her fields of interest and expertise. 

Alexandra L. Quittner, PhD 

Expert Consultant

Dr. Quittner is a Senior Scientist at Joe DiMaggio CF Center and has been a Professor for over 30 years. She has been continuously funded by NIH and other foundations and has published over 250 articles and book chapters. She received an award from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for her development of the first health-related quality of life measures for cystic fibrosis (CFQ-R) and a second award for her international study of depression and anxiety (TIDES) and development of guidelines for mental health care in CF. She is leading a national dissemination, implementation effort to integrate mental health into CF Care and is co-leading the new TIDES 2.0 study screening mental health in young children. She is co-developer of the General Mental Health Screener-CF (GEMS-CF) which assesses prevalent mental health co-morbidities. 

Annie R. Thomas-Diceman, RSW 

Expert Consultant

Annie, a seasoned social worker for over 20 years at St. Michael’s Hospital – Unity Health Toronto, specializes in the intersection of physical and mental health within the Division of Respirology. With a degree from Toronto Metropolitan University, she’s licensed and registered to provide social work services in Ontario, Canada.  For the past two decades, Annie has dedicated her practice to the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program, employing various therapeutic modalities to support individuals and families. She views counseling as a collaborative process and has been actively involved in implementing CF-CBT into her center.   

Ann O’Leary Amato, LSW 

Expert Consultant

Ann received her Masters in Social Work from the Catholic University of America. Before relocating to Pittsburgh, she worked with children and teens in the Oncology/Hematology Department at Children’s National Hospital in D.C. She has been the social worker in the Adult CF Clinic at UPMC in Pittsburgh since 2019. Ann enjoys working with other staff as part of a multidisciplinary team. Part of her responsibilities include participating in QI initiatives (recent initiative includes standardizing the process of referring patients for lung transplant evaluation and coordinating with transplant teams). After attending the CF-CBT training at NACFC in 2022, Ann started offering CF-CBT to her patients. Ann joined the CF-CBT study team in late 2023 and enjoyed participating in the virtual trainings in Feb and March 2024. She is facilitating a monthly CF-CBT Implementation study group for newly trained clinicians. Ann has found great personal and professional satisfaction from offering CF-CBT to her patients and training new clinicians to offer it to their patients.

Brandon Wright, LSW, CBIS, CDP 

CF-CBT Advisor

Angel Newman 

CF-CBT Advisor

Monica Fuste 

CF-CBT Advisor