News

We are delighted to announce that Andrea Goldschmidt, PhD, has received conferral of tenure at the rank of associate professor by the University of Pittsburgh.

An expert in eating disorders and obesity research, Dr. Goldschmidt focuses on understanding eating behaviors that predict adverse weight-related outcomes, particularly in children and adolescents with elevated weight status. Among Dr. Goldschmidt’s key contributions, she elucidated the development and clinical presentation of loss-of-control eating in youth with overweight/obesity, and established the clinical significance of loss-of-control eating as the core psychopathology construct involved in binge eating. For example, Dr. Goldschmidt found that affect regulation is an important contributor to the onset and maintenance of loss-of-control eating in youth, contradicting research in adults suggesting that affective state is a key determinant. This important finding has driven much of Dr. Goldschmidt’s current research on self-regulation as a distal and proximal contributor to loss-of-control eating.

Dr. Goldschmidt currently leads or co-leads four National Institutes of Health R-level grants. She is principal investigator (PI) of a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) R01 focused on eating-related self-regulation and its neural substrates as mechanisms underlying the sleep/eating behavior association in children with overweight/obesity. A second R01, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), examines executive functioning, weight trajectories, and loss-of-control eating in children with overweight/obesity. She is PI of an NIMH R34 pilot effectiveness trial assessing a family-based treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa adapted for the home setting, and she is multiple PI on an NIDDK R01 focused on designing a mobile intervention for dysregulated eating and weight gain prevention in adolescents. She additionally collaborates on multiple grants as a co-investigator. Dr. Goldschmidt’s prior funding includes a National Center for Research Resources KL2 career development award, a NIDDK-funded K23 award focused on neurodevelopmental substrates of emotion regulation in obese, binge-eating youth, and an NIDDK R03 grant investigating momentary prospective associations between working memory and eating behavior in children.

Dr. Goldschmidt has published her research in top specialized journals in her field, and has co-authored two books, A Clinician’s Guide to Binge Eating Disorder, and Adapting Evidence-Based Eating Disorders Treatments for Novel Populations and Settings: A Practical Guide. She is an elected member of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) Scientific Council, and a fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders. Earlier in her career, Dr. Goldschmidt was honored with an Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award.

An outstanding teacher, Dr. Goldschmidt taught undergraduate and graduate students, as well as residents and fellows. She teaches a cognitive behavioral therapy seminar for psychiatry residents, and is a regular guest lecturer for clinical psychology intern seminars. She has served as a clinical and/or research supervisor for multiple graduate students. Dr. Goldschmidt currently serves as the primary research mentor, co-primary mentor, or co-mentor for three investigators with NIDDK K23 awards.

“Dr. Goldschmidt is a creative, innovative, and extremely accomplished investigator in the field of eating disorders, and is poised to make sustained research contributions in this area,” said David Lewis, MD (Chair, Department of Psychiatry). “She has been deservedly recognized nationally for her work, and makes major contributions to training the next generation of scientists.”

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Goldschmidt!