Ryan Jane Jacoby, Ph.D. is a staff psychologist at the Center for OCD and Related Disorders (CORD) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an Assistant Professor of Psychology (Psychiatry) at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Jacoby completed her undergraduate studies at Williams College and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her clinical internship and post-doctoral training at MGH/HMS. Dr. Jacoby is a licensed clinical psychologist who sees patients through CORD. Her clinical and research interests are broadly focused on the nature and treatment of OCD and anxiety disorders, including specific interests in psychological mechanisms of change in exposure-based therapies as well as treatment augmentation strategies that capitalize on these mechanisms (e.g., inhibitory learning approaches, repetitive negative thinking). She is also interested in improving the understanding and behavioral/psychophysiological measurement of transdiagnostic psychological processes (e.g., intolerance of uncertainty, attentional/cognitive control) utilizing multi-method approaches (e.g., attentional disengagement eye-tracking tasks, behavioral economic decision-making paradigms, biometric indices of autonomic arousal). Dr. Jacoby is currently funded by a Career Development Award (K23) from the National Institute of Mental Health examining attentional/cognitive control as a mechanism in the transdiagnostic treatment of repetitive negative thinking. She was a 2017 recipient of the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) Young Investigator Research Award and a 2018 recipient of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) Alies Muskin Career Development Leadership Program Award.
Professional Staff
Susanne S. Hoeppner, Ph.D., M.Ap.Stat
Susanne S. Hoeppner, Ph.D., M.Ap.Stat, is a biostatistician and epidemiologist at the Center for OCD and Related Disorders (CORD) and an Assistant Investigator in Psychology (Psychiatry) at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hoeppner received her Ph.D. in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences and her Master in Applied Statistics from Louisiana State University and conducted three years of post-doctoral research in climate change ecology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Purdue University. With more than 12 years of experience in research and clinical investigation, she has extensive training and expertise in experimental design, statistical analysis and simulation modeling. Dr. Hoeppner’s clinical interests are in dynamic health behavior modeling and positive psychology. She has served as the principal statistician on pivotal trials approved by the FDA and has designed and analyzed Phase I-III studies in addiction, psychiatry, and psychology. She also has ample experience setting up, updating, and overseeing the use of electronic data capture forms as implemented via REDCap, having designed and managed such databases for several single- and multi-site clinical trials at MGH, and routinely trains and advises research assistants, data managers, and clinical staff on principles of good clinical practice.
Lisa Zakhary, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Lisa Zakhary is the Medical Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for OCD and Related Disorders (CORD) and Director of Pharmacology in the MGH Excoriation Clinic and Research Unit. She graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her general adult psychiatry residency at MGH/McLean. Additionally, she earned a Ph.D. in molecular neurobiology and completed the Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute Fellowship during her medical training. She is Assistant in Psychiatry at MGH and Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She specializes in providing medication treatments to individuals with OCD and related disorders. Additionally, Dr. Zakhary has a special interest in psychodermatology and as a resident, co-founded the MGH Comprehensive Skin Management Clinic, a psychiatry/dermatology clinic providing multi-disciplinary treatment to individuals with a variety of psychodermatologic conditions including compulsive skin picking, trichotillomania, and body dysmorphic disorder. As staff, she continues to explore ways to optimize psychodermatologic treatment through collaboration, education, and research. Her current research is focused on evaluating novel treatments for trichotillomania.
Aisha Usmani, Ph.D.
Aisha Usmani, Ph.D., is the Director of the Adult Intensive Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Program and staff psychologist at the Center for OCD and Related Disorders (CORD) at Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School. She is also an Assistant Professor in Psychology (Psychiatry) at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Usmani specializes in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of anxiety disorders, OCD and OCD spectrum disorders, including tic disorders, body-focused repetitive behaviors, including trichotillomania and skin picking, and other related disorders. Her research experiences include management of research programs and providing assessment and protocol-based treatment for studies, including an RO1 grant. She also enjoys supervising clinical psychology graduate and postdoctoral students. Dr. Usmani completed her postdoctoral fellowships at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CARD) at Boston University and The Evidence Based Treatment Centers of Seattle (EBTCS), where she gained expertise in evidence-based, cognitive-behavioral therapy, including acceptance and mindfulness-based treatments. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Idaho State University, where she focused on cognitive-behavioral treatments.
Jessica Rasmussen, Ph.D.
Jessica Rasmussen, Ph.D., is an Assistant in Psychology (Psychiatry) at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School. During graduate school, Dr. Rasmussen received cognitive-behavioral training in the treatment of anxiety and mood disorders, as well as specialized training in the treatment of compulsive hoarding. Her research interests focus on the etiology, maintenance and treatment of compulsive hoarding and OCD. She also specializes in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorders and body dysmorphic disorder.
