Berta J. Summers, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). Dr. Summers graduated valedictorian from North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in German, after which she spent two years conducting research at Duke University. She received her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at Florida State University and completed her clinical internship and post-doctoral training at MGH/HMS. Dr. Summers is a licensed clinical psychologist with a small private practice in downtown Boston. Her clinical and research expertise center around obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs) such as OCD and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Specifically, her work focuses on cognitive bias modification, problematic safety behaviors, ‘not just right’ experiences, and broad factors influencing etiology and treatment outcome across these illnesses. Further, Dr. Summers is invested in contributing to the current mobile health (mhealth) initiative and harnessing technology (e.g., cell phone applications, virtual reality) to improve the understanding and treatment of OCRDs. Dr. Summers has received the International OCD Foundation Young Investigator Research Award, along with supplemental internal funding from the Livingston Fellowship Award and the Foundations of Human Behavior Grant. Using pilot data from this funding, she is currently in the process of applying for a NIMH K23 Award testing the efficacy of virtual reality-assisted cognitive bias modification training for BDD.
