Meet the team!

Leadership

Rachel Radin, PhD

Dr. Rachel Miller Radin is a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at University of California, San Francisco. Her research and clinical work focus on the intersection of stress, eating behavior, mindfulness, and metabolic health, with a particular emphasis on binge eating and obesity-related disease. She is also a clinical psychologist within the UCSF Eating Disorders Program and affiliated faculty at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and Center for Health and Community.

Dr. Radin earned her PhD in Medical and Clinical Psychology from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and completed postdoctoral fellowships at UCSF supported by both F32 and T32 training awards from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. She has served as Principal Investigator on multiple federally funded and university-supported research projects examining mindfulness-based and motivational interventions to reduce compulsive overeating, stress-related eating, and metabolic risk. She currently leads a K23 Career Development Award focused on developing scalable interventions targeting overeating drive and long-term metabolic health outcomes.

Her work integrates clinical psychology, behavioral medicine, and integrative health approaches to better understand how stress and emotional processes influence eating behavior and chronic disease risk. Dr. Radin has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, including work published in JAMA Network Open, Health Psychology, International Journal of Eating Disorders, and PLOS ONE. Her research has contributed to advancing mechanistic understanding of binge eating, mindfulness, and metabolic dysfunction across both adolescent and adult populations.

In addition to her research program, Dr. Radin provides psychotherapy and supervision for trainees specializing in eating disorders and motivational interviewing-based interventions. She is committed to mentoring early-career clinicians and researchers and has supervised numerous students and research staff who have gone on to doctoral and clinical training programs nationwide.

Through both her scholarship and clinical leadership, Dr. Radin aims to develop accessible, evidence-based interventions that improve mental and metabolic health across diverse populations.

Elissa Epel, PhD

Dr. Elissa Epel is a Professor, the Sarlo-Ekman Endowed Chair in the Study of Human Emotions, and Vice Chair for Psychology and Community in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a past President of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and a founding member of the Behavioral Medicine Research Council.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Epel has studied how psychological stress affects physical health and aging. Her pioneering research helped establish the connection between chronic stress and cellular aging, including the role of telomeres and telomerase in long-term health. Her work has advanced understanding of how stress influences eating behavior, obesity, metabolic health, and resilience across the lifespan.

Dr. Epel is internationally recognized for developing and testing mind-body interventions that promote both mental and physical well-being. Her research has focused on mindfulness, stress reduction, motivational coaching, and other behavioral strategies to improve depression, eating behaviors, weight management, glucose control, and overall health. She has led numerous NIH-funded clinical trials examining how behavioral interventions can improve health outcomes and support healthy aging.

In addition to her research on stress and aging, Dr. Epel leads collaborative national initiatives focused on improving the measurement of stress and understanding the factors that promote emotional well-being and resilience. Her current work explores how positive psychological experiences and healthy lifestyle behaviors can strengthen stress resilience, slow biological aging, and support healthy longevity.

Dr. Epel brings extensive expertise in behavioral medicine, clinical trial leadership, stress biology, metabolic health, and healthy aging to collaborative research efforts aimed at improving health and well-being.

Staff

Isabella Fornell, MSc

Associate Specialist

Isabella Fornell is a counselor and researcher with experience in mental health, research operations, and international collaboration. She completed a Research Master’s in Psychopathology and Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience in the Netherlands, where she developed expertise in clinical research methodology. She has collaborated and lived across different parts of Europe, including research work in Berlin focused on childhood maltreatment, amygdala reactivity, and internalizing symptoms.

In addition to her research background, Isabella has supported international clients through stress reduction, mindfulness-based interventions, and adaptation-related challenges, and has facilitated workshops focused on wellbeing and positive relationships in the workplace.

At UCSF, Isabella manages a portfolio of research projects focused on stress and health. Her work centers on building and overseeing the operational infrastructure needed to successfully run research studies, supporting projects from development through implementation.