Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UCSF

Elissa S. Epel, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF. She received a BA in psychology from Stanford University, and a PhD in clinical psychology from Yale University, with a focus on health psychology. She completed a clinical internship in Behavioral Medicine at the Palo Alto VA Hospital.

At UCSF, her research examines relationships among social status, chronic stress and depression, and coping processes, with outcomes of neuroendocrine sequelae, metabolic-related outcomes (ingestive behavior, fat distribution, insulin sensitivity), and cellular aging. Dr. Epel is currently studying risk and resilience factors that predict these outcomes in dementia caregivers and maternal caregivers. Lastly she is studying how CAM stress reduction interventions affect these outcomes in people with HIV and in people struggling with emotional eating and obesity.

Dr. Epel has also been involved in the UCSF curriculum efforts to integrate behavioral medicine with the basic sciences.
Publications