Principal Investigator

Anna Bardone-Cone, PhD, FAED

Anna Bardone-Cone (she/her/hers) went from a math and French double major at Williams College to teaching middle school and high school to graduate school in clinical psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to internship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, PA. Although her path to psychology was not direct, the field of psychology and being a professor have been a great  professional home for her in terms of letting her wear the many hats she likes: research, mentoring, teaching, seeing clients (although not for a while now). Her first faculty position was at the University of Missouri- Columbia with a move to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009 for unique opportunities and to be closer to family. Anna’s research is on psychosocial factors related to eating disorders and has focused on perfectionism, self-concept constructs, social media, peers, and family. She also has interests in defining recovery from eating disorders in a comprehensive way (in particular, assessing for cognitive recovery, not just physical and behavioral recovery) and in the value of having a consensus way of assessing recovery for the purposes of treatment outcome research, and interests in examining disordered eating and body image in racial and ethnic minority groups, considering theories and relationships that have been tested in predominantly White samples as well as theories and relationships that may be unique to racial/ethnic minorities. Anna is the Director of Clinical Training (DCT) in UNC’s clinical psychology doctoral program and has a sustained involvement in diversity-related initiatives with past roles as faculty advisor for the clinical program’s Diversity Training Committee (including inaugurating the Diversifying Clinical Psychology Weekend), co-director of the department’s diversity initiatives, and Working on Women scholar, as well as ongoing engagement with department and program actions related to racial equity.

Graduate Students

Alexandra (Ale) Miller, MA

Ale (she/her/hers) is a sixth-year doctoral candidate in the UNC clinical psychology program. She is from Miami Beach, Florida. She attended New York University for her undergraduate degree, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Applied Psychology and a minor in Spanish. At NYU, she worked as an intern and research assistant at the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy. After graduating, she worked as an intake counselor at The Door in New York City, an organization that strives to empower youth and offers comprehensive youth development services. Later, she worked as a prevention specialist at a rehabilitation center in Miami, working with adolescents in an arts peer education program. Ale’s master’s thesis focused on the appearance-related communication style of fat talk among young and middle-aged women. Ale’s research interests include appearance-related communication, social media use, self-concept and identity, body image and disordered eating, particularly among female athletes. Ale is currently working on her dissertation entitled, “General and Sport-Specific Risk Factors of Disordered Eating and Negative Affect among Female Aesthetic Athletes.”

Katherine (Katie) Thompson, MA

Katie Thompson (she/her/hers) is a sixth-year doctoral candidate in the UNC clinical psychology program. She is currently completing her pre-doctoral internship at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine in the Women’s Mental Health Track. She is from Manhattan Beach, California. She attended George Washington University for her undergraduate degree, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and minors in Biological Anthropology and Art History in 2014. After graduation, Katie worked for the Section on Growth and Obesity in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. Her research interests include body image and disordered eating among women at key points of change in relation to reproduction (e.g., pregnancy, menopause). Katie’s master’s thesis evaluated negative attitudes about aging and body comparison as risk factors for disordered eating attitudes and behaviors among menopausal women. Her dissertation evaluated sociocultural models of body image and disordered eating among postpartum women.

Emily Walsh, MA

Emily (she/her/hers) is a fourth year doctoral student in the UNC clinical psychology program. She was born and raised in Massachusetts and earned her BA in psychology and studio art from Bard College in 2013. Upon graduating college, she worked for three years as a research assistant on diverse studies for the Rhode Island Hospital Methods to Improve Diagnostic Assessment and Services (MIDAS) Project with Mark Zimmerman, MD and Kristy Dalrymple, PhD, and conducted comprehensive diagnostic evaluations at the hospital’s adult partial hospital program. She then worked for two years at the Columbia Center for Eating Disorders, where she assisted Joanna Steinglass, MD, B. Timothy Walsh, MD, Evelyn Attia, MD, Deborah Glasofer, PhD, and others with fMRI studies examining the role of habit in anorexia nervosa. Emily is broadly interested in body image, sex/sexuality, and developmental trajectories and treatment of restrictive eating pathology. Her master’s thesis examined definitions of “relapse” in anorexia nervosa. She is beginning to explore the relationships among body image, sexuality, and embodiment for her comps and dissertation work. Emily is enrolled in UNC’s Graduate Certificate in Participatory Research and has completed additional training in qualitative research through Research Talk and the Odum Institute.

Lauren Wash, MA

Lauren Wash (she/her/hers) is a first-year doctoral student in the UNC Clinical Psychology program. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Lauren earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Gender & Women’s Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She then received a Master’s in Counseling for Mental Health & Wellness from New York University. Lauren also earned a post-graduate certificate in the integrated treatment of eating disorders from the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy’s Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia (CSAB) in New York City. After graduating with her master’s degree, Lauren worked for five years in full-time clinical research at VA New York Harbor Healthcare System – Manhattan Campus (VANYHHS). She first worked under Sundar Natarajan, MD, MSc as an interventionist on two clinical trials that examined the effectiveness of a telephone-based, personalized behavioral intervention that promotes health behaviors in Veterans with diabetes. Lauren later transitioned to a research coordinator role for the Psychotherapy Research & Development Program at VANYHHS under Cory K. Chen, PhD. This team developed interventions for Veterans who are non-responders to gold standard treatments for depression, anxiety, and PTSD. In addition to full-time research, Lauren also worked part-time as a licensed mental health counselor specializing in eating disorders, and delivered group, individual, and meal support therapy to patients using a variety of approaches including psychodynamic, CBT, and DBT. Lauren hopes to develop a program of research that examines Black women’s and girls’ experiences with eating disorders, negative body image, colorism, and hair politics.

Undergraduate Research Assistants