The Team
Faculty
Kim Bullock, Founding Director
Clinical Professor in School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Kim Bullock is founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Reality & Immersive Technology Program and Lab, Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine, Psychiatry & Neurology and Neurosciences (by courtesy).
Dr. Bullock received her undergraduate degree with honors and distinction in physiology and psychology from the University of California, San Diego, Revelle College and her medical degree from George Washington University in Washington, DC. She completed an internship in internal medicine at Washington Hospital in D.C. and a psychiatry residency at Stanford University. She is a diplomat in the subspecialties of Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry and Lifestyle Medicine. She is currently appointed Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences within Stanford’s School of Medicine.
Dr. Bullock is a leader and pioneer in telehealth services using XR. She has published many peer-reviewed articles and is a Cambridge and Oxford Press author on the subject of functional neurological disorders. Her primary clinical research interest is exploring the use of technology for trauma treatment and psychiatric illnesses involving disruption of bodily perception and function. She is currently focused on the use and dissemination of immersive technologies for telepsychiatry as well as its use in augmentation of physiotherapy, psychotherapy, and skills acquisition. She treats a multitude of illness domains including trauma, phobias, anxiety, pain, mood disorders, and somatic symptom-related disorders. She also provides support and connects researchers, providers, and developers of immersive technology through the Stanford Psychiatry Immersive Technology Consortium (SPIT-C).
Dr. Bullock currently sees patients, teaches, and performs research. She takes a holistic, customized, and personal approach to each patient and encourages family and community involvement in the treatment process. She is intensively trained and teaches both cognitive behavior therapy and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). She runs weekly DBT groups for friends and family, neuropsychiatric patients, and DBT graduates as well as delivers individual comprehensive DBT and CBT and virtual reality psychotherapies. She presents and speaks on the subject of virtual reality, DBT, and Functional Neurological Disorder internationally and locally.
Margot Paul, PsyD
Clinical Assistant Professor in School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Margot Paul, a licensed clinical psychologist, is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She earned her doctoral degree from the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium in 2022, where she won the award for Outstanding Overall Student (2021). She completed her clinical psychology doctoral internship at the Sepulveda VA in Los Angeles followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
Sara Johansen, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor in School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Sara Johansen, MD is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University. Dr. Johansen founded Stanford’s Digital Mental Health Clinic, where she collaborates with platforms like Meru Health and Headspace to provide digital mental health interventions to patients.
Dr. Johansen works with mental health tech startups as a faculty advisor for Stanford Venture Studios and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Additionally, she is a faculty affiliate with the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
Dr. Johansen works in industry as a translational expert applying clinical principles to product development. She has particular expertise in the mental health impact of social media and has consulted with social media companies including TikTok and Meta in research and product development of safety features. She was an invited contributor to the Aspen Institute series on wellbeing, technology, and ethics, and the Stanford HAI seminar series for her work on the mental health impact of social media recommender systems.
Hadi Hosseini
Assistant Professor in School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Hadi Hosseini is a computational/cognitive neuroscientist investigating large-scale structural and functional brain networks in various neuropsychiatric disorders using multimodal neuroimaging, graph theoretical and multivariate pattern analyses techniques. He is also developing novel NIRS-based neurofeedback interventions for enhancing executive functions. Dr. Hosseini has been co-teaching the Neuroimaging Research Methods (Psyc250) at Stanford since 2012.
Carolyn Rodriguez
Professor in School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Stanford University School of Medicine and a Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs. As the Director of the Translational Therapeutics Lab and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Rodriguez leads studies investigating the brain basis of severe mental disorders. Her landmark clinical trials pioneer rapid-acting treatments for illnesses including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related disorders. Her NIH-, foundation-, and donor-funded mechanistic and clinical efficacy studies span targeted glutamatergic and opioid pathway pharmacotherapy, noninvasive brain stimulation, psychotherapy and suicide prevention. She is co-author of “Hoarding Disorder: A Comprehensive Clinical Guide,” published August 2022 by APA Publishing.
Cristin Runfola
Clinical Associate Professor in School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Cristin Runfola specializes in the treatment and research of eating disorders. Her research focuses on the epidemiology of dysregulated eating and weight concerns in underserved populations and her primary interest is in developing and testing the efficacy of clinical interventions designed to improve outcome for eating disorders. This work included developing protocols for delivering therapy in individual and couple-based formats either in person, online, or via video-conferencing. With grant funding, she co-developed couple based interventions for eating disorders (UNITE) and founded a peer to peer eating disorder educational initiative (EMBODY). Most recently, as lead-PI, she piloted a virtual reality based cue exposure therapy (VR-CET) for binge eating.
Within Stanford Psychiatry’s Virtual Reality & Immersive Technology Program, she works with a group of interdisciplinary academics passionate and called upon to evaluate, innovate, and disseminate advances in the field of virtual and augmented reality technology in real world clinical settings.
Dr. Runfola sees individuals with eating disorders in the outpatient setting and serves as a study therapist for various clinical trials. She has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and has presented her work both nationally and internationally. Dr. Runfola also teaches graduate courses in the Stanford University and Palo Alto University PsyD Consortium. She is engaged in advocacy and holds leadership positions within the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED).
Debra Safer
Associate Professor in School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Debra L. Safer specializes in treating eating and weight disorders. More recently, she has broadened her clinical focus by leveraging her understanding of human behavior to address climate change. She obtained her MD from U.C. San Francisco and completed her residency as well as a post-doctoral fellowship in eating disorder intervention research within the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. In addition, she obtained a master’s degree from U.C. Berkeley’s School of Public Health focused on the intersection of fiction narratives & medicine. She has practiced psychiatry for more than 15 years.
Dr. Safer is the Co-Director of the Stanford Adult Eating and Weight Disorders Program. Her research and clinical work in eating disorders and obesity focus on improving patient outcomes by developing and conducting clinical intervention trials to establish evidence-based treatments. She has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed articles, books, and book chapters, and presented her work both nationally and internationally. In addition to her research on clinical interventions and medication trials for patients with eating disorders, other research interests include designing interventions for post-bariatric surgery patients, the use of virtual reality in treating eating disorders, and evaluating the outcomes of evidence-based treatments for eating disorders in “real world” settings.
More broadly, her research, writing, and community involvement focus on addressing both the physical and mental health impacts of climate change, with a particular emphasis on the use of serial drama methodologies, or prosocial entertainment-education programs, based on the theoretical models of self-efficacy and social modeling developed by the renowned social psychologist and Stanford Emeritus Professor Albert Bandura.
Collaborators
Maheen Adamson
Clinical Professor Affiliated Neurosurgery Staff Neurosurgery
Dr. Adamson’s expertise and interests span employing translational neuroscience methodologies for diagnostic and neuromodulation treatments (such as repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)) for frequent health problems in patients with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), psychiatric problems, and Alzheimer’s disease. She has employed advanced structural and functional imaging modalities and biomarker assessments in Veteran, active military, and civilian populations with these health problems. She has been a leader in identifying gender differences in brain injury, particularly in the Veteran population. She currently serves as PI and Site-PI on numerous neuromodulation clinical trials and collaborates internationally for developing advanced diagnostic methods in neuroimaging, especially in underserved communities. In her position at VA Palo Alto, she is actively involved in translating research, such as non-invasive brain stimulation and other therapies, to clinical in-home use by patients using innovations such as virtual and augmented reality.
Dr. Adamson has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications on the cognitive and neural basis of Alzheimer’s disease and on a wide range of topics in TBI. She has received recognition in national and international settings. She is also intricately involved in mentoring research postdoctoral fellows and clinical residents in the Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Psychiatry, and Neurosurgery departments at Stanford School of Medicine. Her goal is to incorporate advanced treatment and diagnostics tailored to each patient’s needs into standard-of-care to improve their daily function, reintegration into society, and long-term rehabilitation.
Jeremy Bailenson
Thomas More Storke Professor of Communication, Founding Director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab
Jeremy Bailenson is founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Thomas More Storke Professor in the Department of Communication, Professor (by courtesy) of Education, Professor (by courtesy) Program in Symbolic Systems, a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, and a Faculty Leader at Stanford’s Center for Longevity. He earned a B.A. cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1994 and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Northwestern University in 1999. He spent four years at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and then an Assistant Research Professor.
Bailenson studies the psychology of Virtual and Augmented Reality, in particular how virtual experiences lead to changes in perceptions of self and others. His lab builds and studies systems that allow people to meet in virtual space, and explores the changes in the nature of social interaction. His most recent research focuses on how virtual experiences can transform education, environmental conservation, empathy, and health. He is the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford.
Sponsors – Current
Hardware and Support:
Microsoft
Limbix
Realiteer
Google
Oculus
Unity
Vive
Amelia Virtual Care
Grants:
Wu Tsai Neuroscience: Translate grant program
National Institute of Health
Sponsors – Past
Psychiatry Small Grants Program, Stanford
National Eating Disorders Association NEDA