Jessica G. Larose

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT JESSICA G. LAROSE

Dr. Jessica LaRose serves as Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) in the VCU School of Public Health (SOPH). She previously served as Interim Chair, first leading what was then the Department of Health Behavior and Policy within the School of Medicine, then leading the split of the former department into two standalone departments as part of the new SOPH. In her current role, she provides leadership and strategic vision for the tripartite mission of the SBS department, and for the SOPH via service on the SOPH Governance Council.Dr. LaRose is a clinical psychologist with specialized training in behavioral medicine in both pediatric and adult populations. Broadly, her research focuses on two areas: 1) understanding the interplay of behavioral, psychological, social, and environmental drivers of chronic disease risk, and 2) developing novel and sustainable interventions to promote physical and psychological health among underserved populations. Authentic community engagement and partnership with the populations she aims to serve is a core tenet of her work. Dr. LaRose’s program of research has been continuously funded since 2007—currently, she is PI or MPI on 4 NIH-funded trials and serves as MPI of the NCI funded VA-ACCERT Center.Dr. LaRose is also deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists and practitioners—over the last decade alone she has mentored >35 individuals across levels of training and currently serves as mentor on 7 career development awards for early career faculty. Prior to transitioning to her current administrative role, she also developed and taught core doctoral level courses in intervention development and implementation, as well as community-engaged intervention design and methods.