Research Advisory Council
Research Advisory Council Working Group:
Dr. Kyra Bobinet, MD, MPH (Chair of Research Advisory Council)
Sam Himelstein (Research Intern)
Angela West, PhD
The MBA Project, Inc. has, over seven years of clinical work and evaluation, developed proprietary mindfulness-based rehabilitation interventions for at-risk and incarcerated youth. We seek to become a national model for the provision of mindfulness-based rehabilitation services to these populations. A key component of this effort is the demonstration of the efficacy of our interventions as evidence-based practice through the design, implementation, interpretation, and dissemination of research studies measuring the effectiveness of the intervention in achieving a number of key outcomes related to increased well-being and reduced risk factors in the youth we serve.
The MBA Project’s Research Advisory Council exists to provide expert guidance and oversight for MBA’s evaluation design, implementation of research studies, and interpretation of data gathered. Members of the Council represent perspectives from both Mindfulness research and Corrections.
Susan L. Smalley, PhD
Founder and Director, Mindful Awareness Research Center, UCLA
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA
Dr. Susan L. Smalley is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and Founder and Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center in the Semel Institute. Dr. Smalley’s research laboratory at UCLA investigates the genetic basis of childhood onset psychiatric disorders such as ADHD and neurodiversity, in general. She is particularly interested in how self-regulation of environments – including one’s own attentional states – can be used to enhance health and well-being while reducing impairment associated with neurobiological differences. This work has led to research on mindfulness including studies of basic biological mechanisms, relationship and intervention in childhood onset psychiatric disorders including ADHD, and dissemination of mindfulness across the lifespan, from Pre-K to the elderly. Dr. Smalley is widely published in both scientific journals and mainstream press (e.g. The Huffington Post) as she is particularly interested in the intersection of science and self-exploration (such as meditation) and its translation to the general public. Lab websites: http://www.marc.ucla.edu and www.adhd.ucla.edu
Susan Turner, PhD
Co-Director, Center for Evidence-Based Corrections, University of California, Irvine.
Professor, Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine.
Susan Turner is a Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California’s Irvine campus. She also serves as Co-Director of the Center for Evidence-Based Corrections, and is a board member of the newly created California Rehabilitation Oversight Board (C-ROB). She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has lead a variety of research projects, including studies on racial disparity, field experiments of private sector alternatives for serious juvenile offenders, work release, day fines and a 14-site evaluation of intensive supervision probation. Dr. Turner’s areas of expertise include the design and implementation of randomized field experiments and research collaborations with state and local justice agencies. Dr. Turner has conducted a number of evaluations of drug courts, including a nationwide implementation study. Her article, “A Decade of Drug Treatment Court Research” (2002) appeared in Substance Use and Misuse, summarizing over 10 years of drug court research conducted while she was at RAND Corporation. Dr. Turner is a member of the American Society of Criminology, the American Probation and Parole Association, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology.
Dr. John Astin, PhD
Research Scientist, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
John Astin is a Research Scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. His research and clinical work has focused on several related areas: 1) the use of mind-body therapies, particularly mindfulness meditation, to treat various health-related problems; 2) psychosocial factors associated with use of complementary and alternative medical therapies; 3) the psychological construct of control and its relationship to mental and physical health; and, 4) the role of spirituality in healthcare. Dr. Astin received his Ph.D. in Health Psychology from the University of California, Irvine. From 1997-1999, he was a research fellow in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program at the Stanford University School of Medicine. From January 2000-June 2002, he was the director of mind-body research at the Complementary Medicine Program, University of Maryland School of Medicine. He has occupied his present position at CPMC since July of 2002. His research has appeared in such journals as Archives of Internal Medicine, JAMA, and the Annals of Internal Medicine. He is the co-author (with Deane Shapiro) of the book: “Control therapy: An integrated approach to psychotherapy, health, and healing.”
Angela M. West, PhD
Developer of the MTASA- Mindfulness Thinking and Acting Scale for Adolescents
Ms. West has studied mindfulness meditation as an adjunctive therapy since 2001; initially in a maximum security forensic mental hospital. In 2003, she initiated her own research in this field focusing on measurement of mindfulness in an adolescent population. The result of an initial project dedicated to measuring mindfulness in youth resulted in an experimental self-report questionnaire, the Mindful Thinking and Action Scale for Adolescents (MTASA). The MTASA is a thirty-two item pencil and paper instrument designed for administration to English speaking adolescents ages thirteen through nineteen. Currently, this project is in a second stage devoted to determining the psychometric properties of the MTASA, along side mindfulness measures designed for use with adults. Results are expected to assist with the further exploration of mindfulness as a potential wellbeing marker in adolescence.
