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.
Professional Staff
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.
Jennifer Ragan, Ph.D.
Jennifer Ragan, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Adult Intensive Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Program. She is staff psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Psychology (Psychiatry) at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ragan received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005. There, Dr. Ragan received extensive training in cognitive-behavioral therapy and provided supervision to junior clinicians through Dr. Michael Telch’s Anxiety Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. She then completed her clinical internship and post-doctoral training through Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ragan is now a licensed psychologist and sees patients through the Center for OCD and Related Disorders (CORD) at Massachusetts General Hospital and in private practice. Her clinical interests are broad, in that she treats patients suffering from anxiety, mood, and eating disorders using both individual and group modalities. Her research interests center around the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
