Alicia E. Meuret, Ph.D. is the Director of the Anxiety and Depression Research Center (ARC) at SMU. She is an Associate Professor in the Clinical Psychology Division at the Department of Psychology at SMU. Dr. Meuret received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Hamburg based on her doctoral work conducted at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University and the Affective Neuroscience Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.
Her research program focuses on novel treatment approaches for anxiety and mood disorders, biomarkers in anxiety disorders and chronic disease (asthma), fear extinction mechanisms of exposure therapy, and mediators and moderators in individuals with affective dysregulations, including non-suicidal self-injury. Dr. Meuret is the founder of Capnometry-Assisted Respiratory Training (CART).
She serves on several editorial boards and is an Associate Editor for the journal Behavior Therapy, and past guest editor for the International Journal of Psychophysiology. Dr. Meuret is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, was past president of the Anxiety Disorders Special Interest Group at Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and served as a technical expert for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Effective Health Care Program. She is a board-certified clinical psychologist who maintains a small private practice.
Dr. Meuret has authored over 75 peer-reviewed articles and book chapter. For her work she has received generous funding by the National Institutes of Health and other agencies and awards, including the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, the Psychiatric Research Society, and the American Psychosomatic Society.
Thomas Ritz, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at SMU. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Hamburg. He has taught at the University of Kiel and held positions as a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University and University of London.
Dr. Ritz is the forthcoming Associate Editor of the journal Behavior Therapy and Biological Psychology. In addition to exploring anxiety and depression, he conducts research on how psychology and stress affect physiology and chronic disease.
