FACULTY COLLABORATORS
Ben Buck is the Clinical Training Lead in the Behavioral Research in Technology and Engineering (BRiTE) Center, as well as an Acting Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. His research is focused on developing mobile health (mHealth) assessments and interventions for individuals at risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and specifically persecutory ideation. His work has a particular focus on developing mHealth interventions that can be delivered remotely to individuals at risk of psychosis and their family caregivers to promote treatment seeking and reduce duration of untreated illness. His work is supported by a 2019 NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23MH122504) from NIMH.
Assistant Professor
BRiTE Center
University of Washington
Benjamin
Buck, Ph.D.
Chieh (Sunny) Cheng, RN, Ph.D is an Assistant Professor of the Nursing and Healthcare Leadership program at the University of Washington Tacoma. Her clinical background is in psychiatric and mental health nursing. As a nursing scientist, her program of research is in the promoting the mental health of individuals, families, and communities through early prevention. She is a co-investigator on interdisciplinary research teams focusing on understanding the experiences of individuals and families living with first episode psychosis and to develop personalized approaches that maximize health and well-being for individuals across life span and diverse populations.
Assistant Professor
University of Washington Tacoma
Sunny
Cheng, Ph.D., RN
Grace Hong is a research manager at the Division of Research and Data Analysis (RDA) of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). At RDA, her research portfolio includes evaluation studies, risk assessment, and research data analyses aimed at enhancing data-informed decision making in behavioral health public policy. Her current and past research projects are in the areas of substance use disorder treatment and prevention, mental health promotion, and first episode psychosis.
Research Manager
DSHS Research and Data Analysis
Washington State Department of Social & Health Services
Grace
Hong, Ph.D.
Dr. Liat Kriegel is an Assistant Research Professor in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University. She is a social worker and social work researcher. Her research focuses on the intersection of the behavioral health and criminal legal systems, with a focus on the role of public space and public space interactions in supporting those impacted. Dr. Kriegel is also a co-lead on efforts to support opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery in rural Washington at the WSU PRISM Collaborative.
Assistant Research Professor
Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
Washington State University
Liat
Kriegel, Ph.D., MSW
Barbara Lucenko is the Program Research and Evaluation Section Chief in the Research and Data Analysis Division (RDA) of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. She manages and oversees projects designed for policy and programmatic decision-making that address risk factors, interventions and outcomes for individuals receiving publicly funded services. As a clinical psychologist, she specializes in the use of administrative data for research and program evaluation relevant to behavioral health and other complex service populations.
Program Research and Evaluation Section Chief
DSHS Research and Data Analysis Division
Washington State Department of Social & Health Services
Barbara
Lucenko, Ph.D.
Dr. Samuel Murray attended Medical School at Creighton University School of Medicine. Upon graduating, he completed his Residency in General Psychiatry at the University of California, Davis. He then went on to complete a Fellowship in Public Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
Faculty Psychiatrist
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center
Samuel
Murray, M.D.
Dr. Forsyth is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, with a minor concentration in Neuroscience, from UCLA in 2016. She completed her clinical internship at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh before returning to UCLA for postdoctoral training in functional genomics. She transitioned to faculty as an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at UCLA under the Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics in 2019 before moving to the University of Washington in 2021. Her research seeks to understand how serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia develop, with an emphasis on understanding the pathways from genetic variation to neural- and systems-level changes.
Assistant Professor
University of Washington School of Medicine
Jennifer Forsyth, Ph.D.
Anna Sunshine completed her medical school, graduate school and psychiatry training at the University of Washington. Her graduate training was completed in the Department of Genome Sciences where she used high-throughput sequencing approaches to study the biological effects of complex genetic changes in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Connecting her background in genomics with psychiatry, Dr. Sunshine’s research now focuses on identifying genetic risk factors for schizophrenia and characterizing the biological effects of these risk alleles using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) systems. Dr. Sunshine engages individuals living with schizophrenia and their families in research to further our current understanding of schizophrenia biology and help lay groundwork for future treatment development.
Acting Assistant Professor
University of Washington School of
Medicine
Anna Sunshine, MD, Ph.D.
RESEARCH COORDINATORS
Bryony
Stokes, BA
Washington State University
Sheldon
Stokes, BA
Washington State University