Wittenborn, Andrea K. Ph.D.

Dr. Andrea K. Wittenborn is Graduate Director and Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Purdue University and completed a doctoral research internship at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Before coming to Michigan State in 2014, she served on the faculty at Virginia Tech for 7 years.

Dr. Wittenborn studies mental health prevention and intervention from a systems theory perspective. She has been PI or methodologist of 2 randomized controlled trials testing the efficacy of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy for co-occurring depression and relationship discord. In a collaboration with colleagues at MIT and Virginia Tech, she was the PI of a recent NIMH funded study that used an innovative simulation modeling approach for assessing personalized depression interventions. An ongoing study aims to develop and test an intelligent smartphone app for depression detection. She has several grants pending focused on personalizing treatment for depression and improving mental health screening and intervention through the use of technology.

Dr. Wittenborn is an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy (JMFT) and the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy, Guest Editor (with Dr. Susan Johnson) of a recent JMFT special section on “New Research Findings on Emotionally Focused Therapy,” an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor, and co-recipient of the JMFT Best Article of 2013 Award. In 2011, she received the Virginia Tech Excellence in Graduate Student Advising Award for her mentoring of graduate students. Dr. Wittenborn’s students frequently publish and present their research and are active contributors to the field.