Elissa Jelalian, PhD

• Staff Psychologist, Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, Rhode Island Hospital

• Coordinator of Pediatric Psychology in the Division of Child and Family Psychiatry, Rhode Island Hospital

• Co-Coordinator, Psychological Services to Pediatric Oncology, Hasbro Children’s Hospital

• Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Pediatrics, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Background Information

Elissa Jelalian, Ph.D., has been a staff psychologist in the Department of Child and Family Psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital since 1992. She is also an associate professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Pediatrics at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Jelalian is a graduate of Brandeis University. She earned her doctorate at Miami University, and did her post-doctoral training in the Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, Rhode Island Hospital, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Research Interests

Jelalian’s research program focuses on development and implementation of innovative weight control interventions for children and adolescents, as well as evaluation of state-wide policy to promote healthier school nutrition and physical activity environments.  Her research has been supported by NIH since 1999 and has had a significant impact on the study of behavioral weight control interventions for adolescents.

Her current research investigates innovative strategies for involving parents in adolescent weight control. She is also co-PI on a NIMH treatment development grant evaluating the efficacy of cognitive behavioral intervention combined with exercise in the treatment of overweight and depressed adolescents.

Jelalian has served as a mentor for predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees in pediatric psychology at the Brown University Clinical Psychology Training Consortium for the past 15 years. She has functioned as chair of the clinical didactics committee at Brown since 2003 and was recently appointed an associate director for the training consortium. She was the recipient of a departmental award for outstanding mentor in 2004 and the 2010 Martin P. Levin Mentorship award from Division 54 (pediatric psychology) of the American Psychological Association in 2010. Jelalian is a Fellow in Division 54 as well as The Obesity Society and has served on more than 20 ad hoc and special emphasis review panels for the National Institutes of Health.

Selected Publications

• Jelalian, E., Mehlenbeck, R., Richardson, E., Birmaher, V., & Wing, R.R. (2006). “Adventure therapy” combined with cognitive behavioral treatment for overweight adolescents, International Journal of Obesity, 30, 31-39.

•  Jelalian, E., Hart, C., Mehlenbeck, R., Lloyd-Richardson, E., Kaplan, J., Flynn-O’Brien, K., & Wing, R. R. (2008). Predictors of attrition and weight loss in an adolescent weight control program. Obesity. 16, 1318-1323.

•  Mehlenbeck, R.S., Jelalian, E., Richardson, E.E, & Hart, C.N. (2009). Effects of Behavioral Weight Control Intervention on Binge Eating Symptoms Among Overweight Adolescents. Psychology in the Schools, 46, 776-786.

• Jelalian, E.J., Richardson, E.E., Mehlenbeck, R.S., Hart, C.N., Flynn-O’Brien, K.F., Kaplan, J., Neill, M., & Wing, R.R. (2010). Behavioral Weight Control Treatment Combined with Supervised Exercise or Peer Enhanced Adventure Intervention for Overweight Adolescents. The Journal of Pediatrics, 157, 923-928

• Hart, C. N., Jelalian, E., Raynor, H. A., Mehlenbeck, R., Lloyd-Richardson, E. E., Kaplan, J., Flynn-OBrien, K., & Wing, R. R. (2010). Early patterns of food intake in an adolescent weight loss trial as predictors of BMI change. Eating Behaviors, 11, 217-222.

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