Clinical Researchers

Kristin R. Archer, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She is also the director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Musculoskeletal Research. Her expertise is in the assessment and management of psychosocial risk factors in patients with musculoskeletal conditions. She has developed various behavioral interventions that merge psychological strategies with more traditional physical therapy techniques and tested these innovative programs through multi-center pragmatic trials. Research interests also include the development and validation of tools to predict patient-centered outcomes and assess chronic pain and disability. Archer has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense (DoD) and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), as well as various foundations. She was a research fellow of the NIH and a visiting scientist at the University of Pittsburgh. Archer is the author of more than 130 peer reviewed papers and has received awards from the North American Spine Society and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. She holds a doctoral degree in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a master’s and doctorate in physical therapy from the University of Colorado. She joined the Osher team as research director in September of 2019.

Carrie Brintz is a clinical health psychologist specializing in psychosocial and behavioral treatments for people with chronic pain. She holds a doctoral degree from the University of Miami and has completed a NIH-funded postdoctoral research fellowship in Complementary and Integrative Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. She has completed training in facilitating mindfulness-based interventions through the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt and the Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto, in addition to training in clinical hypnosis for pain through the Osher Center. Her research aims to develop and test psychosocial and mindfulness-based interventions to improve outcomes and quality of life for people with chronic pain conditions and post-surgical pain.

Hannah Brown, RN, works with the team on improving the patient intake survey process, and on analyzing experiences transitioning to Telehealth. She is also a WHNP/AGPCNP student at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. 

Rogelio A. Coronado, Ph.D., is a research assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He is an active member of the Vanderbilt Center for Musculoskeletal Research, the Vanderbilt Center for Health Services Research and the Osher Center. As a physical therapist, Coronado has expertise in musculoskeletal pain management and manual therapy. His primary research interests are on the role of psychological factors on prognosis and treatment response; integration of behavioral strategies within clinical care for musculoskeletal pain conditions; and mechanisms and treatment effect modifiers of pain interventions. He is a collaborating investigator on several large comparative effectiveness trials funded by the NIH and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Coronado is an author of forty-nine peer-reviewed papers (twenty-three as first author) and has received funding as Principal Investigator (PI) from the Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy, the Cervical Spine Research Society and the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research. He is currently supported by a VUMC Faculty Research Scholars award. Coronado received his doctoral degree from the University of Florida and his master’s degree in physical therapy from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

Michael Finn, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology at the Osher Center for Integrative Health. He received his PhD from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville and completed his clinical psychology internship at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. He completed a one-year research fellowship at the Universität Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany where he studied the relationship between phenomenology (the study of first-person experience) and clinical psychology. He has received generalist training in health psychology, inpatient psychiatry, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and integrative approaches to psychotherapy. He will sometimes incorporate clinical hypnosis into psychotherapeutic work and often teaches clients self-hypnosis techniques. Using behavioral imaging, he conducts research on the relationship between movement, pain, and basic elements of the self. He also conducts research on hypnosis as both a natural phenomenon and as a form of treatment. His interdisciplinary research is largely inspired by psychodynamic and existential-phenomenological approaches to the self. 

Michelle Foote Pearce, DMin, MSN, MA, is the Director of Mindfulness Programs and Outreach and Director of Psychological Services for the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt. She is Assistant Professor of Clinical Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is a licensed and nationally certified mental health service provider and advanced practice registered nurse. Dr. Pearce has been meditating for over twenty years and develops and teaches context-based mindfulness courses to patients, in the community, and to students and other health professionals. She is a qualified teacher of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. She has also developed and teaches Foundations of Mindfulness, Mindfulness Skills for people with chronic illnesses, Mindfulness SKills for Chronic Pain and Mindful Listening for people suffering with tinnitus. She has served as the fidelity supervisor for the mindfulness arm of several research grants and is interested in the transformative effects of mindfulness for health and healing.

Emily is a work study student from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. She is experienced in project coordination and qualitative data analysis for research projects in integrative medicine and psycho-oncology. At the Osher Center, she coordinates patient outreach and data management for patient-reported outcomes clinical research studies under the supervision of Katy Hansen, ANP.

Resh Gupta, M.S., is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the Vanderbilt Brain Institute working under the direction of Dr. Autumn Kujawa. In 2015, she graduated with highest distinction and received a B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). As an undergraduate student at UIUC, she conducted research on associative memory in younger and older adults. As a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, she has conducted research on the short and long-term consequences of proactive interference and has also examined differences in cognition and brain structure, vasculature, and white matter integrity between individuals at-risk or not-at-risk for Alzheimer’s disease. At the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt, Resh uses EEG/ERP, behavioral, and clinical outcome measures to investigate the effects of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on threat-related attentional biases in anxious populations. When she is not engaged in research, she enjoys spending time with family, creating art, and playing her accordion, piano, and guitar.

Kathryn Hansen, MSN, ANP-BC is the Medical Director of the Osher Center Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt and a PhD candidate in the Health Services Nursing Science program at Vanderbilt University. Her years of experience as a massage therapist, ICU nurse and integrative nurse practitioner have guided her to investigate the delivery of interdisciplinary, non-pharmacologic therapies for patients with chronic pain. Leveraging her expertise in mind-body therapies, Ms. Hansen facilitates integrative medicine group visits for a chronic pain population using telehealth. She is on the Executive Committee of Bravenet, an integrative medicine practice-based research network of 19 sites. Ms. Hansen is interested in research embedded in clinical practice to improve the quality of care and access to integrative health. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, hiking, reading and spending time with her family. 

Dr. Lindsey McKernan has been a member of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty and Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt since 2014.  Dr. McKernan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. McKernan is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in treating and researching the intersection of co-occurring chronic health conditions and mental health. She is also currently funded by the National Institute of Health to develop innovative psychosocial treatments for specific pain populations that we serve at OCIM. Dr. McKernan has an active research lab and you can follow her work by visiting mckernanlab.com or following updates on twitter through @LCMPhD. 

Poppy joined our group in May, 2017. She is a clinical and cognitive neuroscientist whose extant body of research seeks to illuminate biological substrates of complex dynamic mind states, and brain function associated with mental health, at theoretical (basic science) and applied (translational) levels.  At the Osher Center, Poppy will continue neurobiological research streams examining the working mechanisms of mindfulness-based and bio/neuro-feedback interventions for a range of clinical conditions, encompassing attention deficits, mood disorders, and dissociative trauma.

Landrew Sevel, PhD., joined the Osher Center at Vanderbilt as a clinical psychology fellow in 2017. He received his PhD. from the University of Florida Department of Clinical and Health Psychology and completed his clinical internship at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System in Gainesville, FL. Dr. Sevel’s clinical interests center on the treatment of chronic illness, chronic pain, trauma, and end-of-life difficulties. During his postdoctoral fellowship at the Osher Center, he completed advanced training mindfulness-based and body-centered psychotherapies, and clinical hypnosis. Dr. Sevel has studied and practiced meditation since 2010 and completed additional training as a mindfulness teacher. His research focuses on the elucidation of processes of endogenous pain modulation.  

Ruth Q. Wolever, PhD, NBC-HWC is a Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who serves as the Director of Vanderbilt Health Coaching and the Interim Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt. She has a secondary appointment at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, an Adjunct Associate Professorship at Meharry Medical College, and is the Chief Science Officer for eMindful, Inc. Ruth is a nationally-board certified health and wellness coach (NBC-HWC) and a clinical health psychologist with over 25 years of experience training and mentoring medical and allied health professionals in behavioral medicine, emotional health and coaching. Ruth also has over 25 years of experience designing, implementing, and evaluating behavior change programs for medical patients and those at risk for chronic disease. Ruth is internationally recognized for her expertise on Health and Wellness Coaching, is a founding member of the National Consortium for Credentialing Health and Wellness Coaches, and served as the inaugural President of the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching from Jan 2017 - Feb 2019 (formerly named the International Consortium for Health and Wellness Coaching). In addition to her focus on healthcare professional training, Ruth studies integrative health coaching and mindfulness-based approaches to self-regulation and lifestyle change for those with, or at elevated risk for, diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, tinnitus, chronic pain and other stress-related disorders. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NCCAM – now NCCIH, Office of Women’s Health, NHLBI, NIDCD, and NIDDK), the United States Air Force, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, industry, and philanthropy. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Ruth was the Founding Research Director for Duke Integrative Medicine and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke School of Medicine.  Ruth has co-authored 70 articles and academic chapters, and collaboratively given over 295 peer-reviewed or invited presentations. She also co-authored The Mindful Diet, released in 2015 by Simon & Schuster. Ruth has served as an expert consultant in emotional health and behavior change for Everyday Health, GlaxoSmithKline, Nurtur (a fully-owned subsidiary of Centene), the Samueli Institute, Nokia, Fullfill, and for clinics on better integrating behavioral health into primary care models. She is particularly interested in the intersection of mindfulness, inter-professional training, and behavior change.

Chongbin Zhu is a practitioner of Traditional Acupuncture/Chinese Medicine. He is also a neuroscientist and pharmacologist, served as a research faculty member at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine prior to his full clinical commitment. Chongbin is experienced in the treatment of chronic pain as well as many other conditions. His approach to patients is to focus on the whole self - mind, body and spirit. 

Trained in integrative Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and western medicine, Chongbin graduated with a Medical Degree from Anhui College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China. In addition, he received his Ph.D. in acupuncture and neuroscience at Fudan University Medical Center. In his career, Chongbin has studied the effect and mechanisms of acupuncture, and has authored over 30 published articles. His current research interest is the effect of acupuncture for pain management, mental health, as well as neurological disorders. Chongbin has practiced acupuncture in Nashville since 2001.  

Emily joined our team in November 2018 as a research assistant and study coordinator. As a study coordinator, Emily is primarily responsible for participant recruitment, database management, and data collection. Emily received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of North Carolina Wilmington, and a master’s degree in experimental psychology from Appalachian State University. Her graduate research focused on trauma and its effects on information processing, such as emotion identification, and attentional bias.