Eating Behaviors Research Clinic
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Pamela Keel
she/her/hers
Pamela K. Keel, Ph.D., is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor and Director of the Eating Behaviors Research Clinic in the Department of Psychology at Florida State University. She received her A.B. in Anthropology summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1992, her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1998 and completed her clinical psychology internship at Duke University Medical Center in 1998. Dr. Keel has received grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her research on the nosology, biology, epidemiology, and longitudinal course of bulimic syndromes. In addition, Dr. Keel is co-Principal Investigator and co-Director of the NIMH-funded Integrated Clinical Neuroscience Training Program at Florida State University. She currently serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Eating Disorders and has previously been an Associate Editor for the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, as well as a standing member of a grant review panel for the NIH Center for Scientific Review. Dr. Keel was elected as a Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders in 2006, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science in 2013, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in 2014. She served as President of the Eating Disorders Research Society in 2009–2010 and President of the Academy for Eating Disorders in 2013–2014, and she received the Leadership Award in Research from the Academy for Eating Disorders in 2019.
Graduate Students:
Sarrah Ali
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Sarrah received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of California San Diego in 2016. Since joining the clinical psychology Ph.D. program at FSU in Fall 2021, Sarrah’s research has focused on better understanding psychosocial factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of eating pathology, with a specific interest in the impact of ethnoracial group membership. Her work aims to 1) identify overlooked differences in eating pathology among ethnoracial groups and 2) uncover mechanisms responsible for these differences. Sarrah has presented independent research at international conferences, including the International Conference on Eating Disorders and the Eating Disorder Research Society meeting. She has published research in multiple journals, including the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science and Psychological Assessment. Sarrah plans to continue researching eating disorders across ethnoracial groups to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of these serious conditions as a faculty member at a research university where she will direct her own lab and mentor graduate students.
Alejandra Medina
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Alejandra received her B.S. in Psychology (Clinical Track, Honors) with a minor in Statistics at the University of Central Florida in May 2024. During her undergraduate years, she completed a senior honors thesis examining the moderated mediating role of body image and exercise motivation in the association between exercise frequency and romantic relationship satisfaction. She also co-authored projects focused on body image and loss-of-control eating across diverse populations. Since joining the clinical psychology program at FSU in Fall 2024, Alejandra has presented independent research at international conferences, including the International Conference of Eating Disorders, with travel funded by the Academy of Eating Disorders’ Student/Early Career Investigator/Clinical Trainee Travel Scholarship, as well as the Eating Disorder Research Society. Alejandra has published a first-author paper that examines how social media influences the relationship between peer influence and disordered eating in adults. Alejandra's research interests center on understanding psychosocial factors associated with eating pathology, with particular attention to social media, body image, and, more recently, weight suppression. Additionally, Alejandra is interested in examining how the influence of these factors varies across demographic groups.
Holly Spinner
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Holly received her B.S. in Psychology summa cum laude from Penn State University in 2022, where she worked in Dr. Kenneth Levy's and Dr. Pamela Cole's labs as an undergraduate research assistant. She worked as a behavioral research coordinator in Dr. Marian Tanofsky-Kraff's lab at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, prior to beginning her graduate studies at Florida State in Fall 2024. In her time at Florida State, Holly has presented original research at international conferences, including the Eating Disorders Research Society and the International Conference on Eating Disorders, and published first-author manuscripts in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Additionally, as a first-year student, she was awarded the Russell and Eugenia Morcom Graduate Research Day Excellence Award (2nd place) for her presentation on the predictive validity of purging disorder. Holly is passionate about researching the development, maintenance, and prevention of bulimic-spectrum eating pathology from adolescence through adulthood. She has particular interests in emotion regulation, familial interactions, and suicidality.
Ziyu (Ivan) Zhao
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Ziyu (Ivan) Zhao received his B.A. in Psychology with honors, minoring in statistics, and B.S. in Public Relations from Boston University in 2023. In his undergraduate years, Ivan examined sex differences in the associations between weight discrimination and disordered eating among veterans. After college, Ivan joined the Mass General Hospital Multidisciplinary Eating Disorder Research Collaborative, where he gained experience in assessment and in utilizing fMRI in participants with Anorexia Nervosa. Since joining FSU’s clinical psychology program in Fall 2024, Ivan's research has focused on defining the construct of maladaptive exercise and examining its association with eating pathology through longitudinal modeling. Ivan has presented original research at international conferences and published one empirical article examining the predictive validity of forms of maladaptive exercise in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Ivan aims to develop a research program focusing on reward mechanisms underlying maladaptive exercise and eating pathology using a bio-behavioral approach.
ICN Cross-Area Trainee:
Inge Guerrero
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Inge Guerrero is a Ph.D. student in Neuroscience at Florida State University and a trainee in the NIH-Integrated Clinical Neuroscience Training for Translational Research program. She joined Dr. Pamela Keel’s lab to study the biological and psychological mechanisms underlying bulimic-spectrum eating disorders. Her research focuses on how comorbid anxiety and substance use disorders shape the clinical presentation of bulimic syndromes, with an emphasis on identifying fear- and reward-based processes that contribute to symptom heterogeneity. Using a transdiagnostic approach, her work demonstrates that both avoidance-related (e.g., punishment sensitivity) and approach-related (e.g., reward sensitivity) traits are associated with greater severity of eating pathology, challenging traditional models that classify these disorders solely within the internalizing spectrum. Inge has presented at the the International Conference on Eating Disorders and published first-author work in European Eating Disorders Review. Broadly, her research focuses on applying translational frameworks and clinically informed research questions to her neuroscience animal models to better understand the mechanisms underlying eating disorders.
Project Coordinator:
Harmony Vides-Varini
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Harmony received her B.S. in Psychology from Florida State University in May 2023. After learning about Dr. Keel’s ED research during her study abroad course “Eating Disorders in London," Harmony joined the Eating Behaviors Research Clinic as an undergrad research assistant in Fall 2022. In 2023, she was promoted to oversee Dr. Keel's study: Eating Disorders Across Genders, Generations, and Adult Development Stages (AGGA) as Project Coordinator and Manager of the Eating Behaviors Research Clinic. Harmony is broadly interested in sociocultural factors that influence eating pathology in underrepresented groups. Additionally, given her dance background, she is interested in developmental and environmental factors contributing to disordered eating in competitive athletes. In the future, she will pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.
Research Assistant:
Alexandria Hart
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Alexandria graduated from the University of Central Florida in Spring 2023 with a B.S in Psychology, a minor in Intelligence and National Security, and a certificate in Behavioral Forensics. She started volunteering as a post-baccalaureate research assistant in Dr. Thomas Joiner's Lab in Summer 2024, where she helped conduct studies relating to suicidal behavior, self-dehumanization on suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and risk factors that increase the capacity for suicide. She joined the Keel Lab in the Fall of 2025 to gain hands-on experience in the conduction of eating disorder research, while also hoping to explore the connection between disordered eating and suicidal behaviors. She currently works on Dr. Keel's Eating Disorders Across Genders, Generations, and Adult Development Stages (AGGA) study as a post-baccalaureate Research Assistant. Alexandria is interested in pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology, where she aims to study the nature and causes of suicide in order to understand and prevent suicidal behaviors.
Undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis:
Isabella Cerase
Isabella is a senior at Florida State University majoring in Psychology with a minor in Women’s Studies. She joined the Keel Lab in the Fall of 2023 to gain further experience in eating disorders research after her interest in the topic sparked while conducting her own study on body image and social media among adolescent girls as part of a research class in high school. In Spring 2026, under the direction of Dr. Keel, she defended her Honors Thesis focused on Instagram trends and their potential impact in inoculating from the negative body image effects of social media use. Isabella will be continuing her education at Florida State University in the Ph.D. program in Social Psychology under the mentorship of Dr. Ashby Plant.
InternFSU:
Emma Oliveras
Emma is a senior at Florida State University, majoring in Psychology and minoring in General Business. She joined the Keel lab as a DIS student in January of 2024 to understand risk factors that influence eating pathology. After two years in the Keel lab, she adopted the role of Research Assistant Intern in the Spring of 2026 through the InternFSU program. Additionally, Emma is a part of the Joiner lab, gaining hands-on experience in understanding the cognitive risk factors pertaining to the interpersonal theory of suicide. Emma is a secretary in the campus organization Realizing Everyone’s Need for Emotional Wellness and a student ambassador in the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders at FSU. After graduation, Emma aspires to seek a PhD in Clinical Psychology to conduct research on risk factors that influence the onset of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors.
