Detailed Biography:

Dr. George Slavich is a leading expert in the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress, and in psychological and biological mechanisms linking stress with poor mental and physical health. He developed the first online system for assessing lifetime stressor exposure; formulated the first fully integrated, multi-level theory of depression; and is helping pioneer a new field of research called human social genomics , which is revealing how social experiences reach deep inside the body to affect the human genome. His most recent research focuses on Social Safety Theory, which describes how experiences of social safety and threat influence the brain and immune system to affect human health and behavior. This translational work on the psychoneuroimmunology of stress, health, and behavior has been published in leading journals including Nature Medicine , Nature Communications , JAMA Psychiatry , PNAS,  Psychological Bulletin , Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews , the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology , and others.

In addition to these research efforts, Dr. Slavich is deeply devoted to teaching and mentoring and to helping develop the next generation of leaders in psychiatry and psychology. In addition to having mentored more than 180 pre- and post-doctoral trainees, early in his career Dr. Slavich founded the Stanford Undergraduate Psychology Conference, Western Psychological Association Student Council, and Society of Clinical Psychology’s Section on Graduate Students and Early Career Psychologists. More recently, he has developed a new approach to classroom instruction called transformational teaching  and has written numerous articles on professional development issues in science. He has received 18 awards for these contributions since 2009, including the Neal E. Miller New Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, Herbert Weiner Early Career Award from the American Psychosomatic Society, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema Early Career Research Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, and Raymond D. Fowler Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Professional Development of Graduate Students from the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Slavich completed undergraduate and graduate coursework in psychology and communication at Stanford University, and received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. After graduate school, he was a clinical psychology intern at McLean Hospital in Boston and a clinical fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He subsequently completed three years of NIMH-supported postdoctoral training in psychoneuroimmunology at UCSF and UCLA. He is presently a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Division of Population Behavioral Health, at UCLA; Founding Director of the UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research; an Investigator at the One Mind Center for Cognitive Neuroscience; and a Research Scientist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. In addition to these research roles, he serves as Director of the California Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (CalSTAR) Network, Director of the UCLA Bruin Stress Resilience Network, Director of the Branco Weiss Fellowship International Collaborative Grants Program, Co-chair of the APS National Task Force on Stress Measurement in Primary Care, Director of the Global Belonging Collaborative, and Senior Program Director for the UCLA/UCSF ACEsAware Family Resilience Network, which is supported by a $41.5 million grant from the Office of the California Surgeon General and the California Department of Health Care Services. His work has been covered by many media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Scientific American, TIME Magazine, HBO, NPR, and U.S. News & World Report, among others.