Katarina Ferrucci, BA, MS, PhD

Katarina earned her BA in Psychology from Bard College. Her undergraduate thesis proposed an exploratory study, which investigated the relationship between perceptions of personal size, BMI, and body adiposity. While at Bard, Katarina aided in establishing the Affective Cognition Laboratory at Bard College; a novel psychophysiology lab, which focused on affect sharing and empathetic emotion. During this time, she also served as a clinical research assistant at the Anderson Center for Autism, where she conducted independent case investigations for individuals expressing atypical eating and feeding symptomology, as well as exacerbated emotional expression. At Anderson, she additionally contributed to a validation study of the English translation of the San Martin Scale, which provides a comprehensive assessment of quality of life for individuals on the Autism Spectrum. Following graduation, she pursued her MS in Behavioral and Social Health Science from the School of Public Health at Brown University. Throughout her second year at Brown, she worked as a research assistant with RIDOC: Heart and Sole Debate; teaching and facilitating a cardiovascular health course and debate program to incarcerated males at the Rhode Island state medium security ACI. Her master’s thesis investigated the relationship between body image, self-perceived weight status, and body shaping behaviors in young, transgender women. Following graduation, she worked as a Research Coordinator at UMass Chan, aiding in a study investigating delay in diagnosis for patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis. Her research interests include sexual and gender minority health, community-based health behavior intervention, health policy, and preventative healthcare. Katarina completed her doctoral work with the UMass Center for Clinical and Translation Science (UMCCTS) TL1 Training Program and was mentored by Dr. Kate Lapane and Dr. William Jesdale.