Dr. Kristin von Ranson
Director and Principal Investigator
Dr. Kristin von Ranson is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary and a registered clinical psychologist with expertise in eating disorders research, assessment, and treatment across the lifespan. She has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and her research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, PolicyWise for Children & Families, and the National Eating Disorders Association. In addition to being an award-winning research supervisor, she is a fellow and past member of the board of directors of the Academy for Eating Disorders, an elected member of the Eating Disorders Research Society, and has served on the editorial boards of three psychology journals.
Alyssa Smith
Doctoral Student, Clinical Psychology
Alyssa is a Ph.D. student interested in eating disorders, weight bias, gender differences, and perfectionism. Her dissertation research looks at differences in eating pathology, personality, and weight bias in men with and without eating disorders, as well as factors that may contribute to binge eating over time (e.g., perfectionism). She hopes to shed some light on the factors that contribute to men’s eating disorders, an understudied population. Likewise, she has been involved in research projects focused on comparing differences in eating pathology between men and women (Smith et al., 2021), evaluating the psychometric properties of a commonly used eating disorder questionnaire (EDE-Q; Smith & von Ranson, 2022), and contributing to a large meta-analysis of body image across the lifespan (Lacroix et al, 2023).
- Lacroix, E., Smith, A. J., Husain, I. A., Orth, U., von Ranson, K. M. (2023). Normative body image development: A longitudinal meta-analysis of mean-level change. Body Image, 45, 238-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.03.003
- Smith, A. J., Farstad, S. M., & von Ranson, K. M. (2021). Self-reported eating disorder psychopathology in community-based male and female Albertans. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 54, 438-444. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23434
- Smith, A. J. & von Ranson, K. M. (2022, May 26-29). Factor structure of the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire in female and male Albertans aged 15 to 71. [Poster presentation]. 2022 Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Chicago, United States.
Deepika Bajaj
Doctoral Student, Clinical Psychology
Deepika is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Calgary. Her research interests broadly focus on improving understanding of (1) eating pathology and body image in underrepresented groups, (2) maintaining and risk factors of eating disorders, and (3) use of evidence-based approaches for the treatment of eating disorders. Deepika is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) doctoral fellowship, wherein she is exploring body image and eating pathology in South Asian Canadian women. In addition, she is funded by an Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI) doctoral scholarship to explore binge eating and gambling in community men. Her master’s thesis explored the use of evidence-based psychological interventions among community clinicians in British Columbia treating eating disorders. Since joining the lab, Deepika has collaborated on projects on (1) eating pathology during the perinatal period (Bajaj et al., 2023), and (2) emotion dysregulation, food addiction, and substance use in community-based women (Farstad et al., under review).
- Bajaj, D., Markova, V., MacKinnon, A., Bell, R. C., von Ranson, K. M., Letourneau, N., Giesbrecht, G. F., & Tomfohr-Madsen, L. (2023). Binge-spectrum symptoms in their association with higher gestational weight gain. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 56(7), 1378–1390. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23945
- Farstad, S.M., Bajaj, D., & von Ranson, K.M. (2024). Examining short-term longitudinal relationships between emotion regulation and addictive behaviors among community women: Emotion regulation, food addiction, and substance abuse. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Madison Erbach
Master of Science Student, Clinical Psychology
Madison’s research interests lie broadly in improving services for people with eating disorders. Currently, she is exploring factors that impact the treatment choices that clinicians make when treating clients with eating disorders. Through interviews with clinicians, Madison aims to better understand what treatments they use, what factors influence their treatment choices, and what barriers prevent them from using evidence-based treatments.
Alexa Ligertwood
B.Sc., Psychology, Volunteer Research Assistant
Alexa has been a volunteer research assistant with the Eating Behaviours Lab since 2022. Alexa’s primary focus in the lab is assisting Dr. von Ranson and the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) with the AED Global Survey of Eating Disorders Clinicians and Training. Alexa has supported the AED Global Survey of Eating Disorders Clinicians and Training through assisting Dr. von Ranson with ethics applications, preparing the survey for distribution in Qualtrics, developing participant recruitment materials, and beginning preliminary, descriptive data analyses. Alexa also had the opportunity to attend the 2024 International Conference on Eating Disorders (ICED) in New York, where she gave a short presentation on using Qualtrics to distribute online surveys.
- Ligertwood, A. (2024, March 16). Conducting a Global Survey: The AED Global Survey: How to Establish a Survey in Qualtrics [Conference presentation]. International Conference on Eating Disorders (ICED), New York, NY.
Luciana Zapata Suárez
B.A. in progress, Psychology, Research Assistant
luciana.zapatasuarez@ucalgary.ca
Luciana is collaborating on a research study examining binge eating and addiction in community men. She is particularly interested in exploring the social and cultural factors that contribute to the development and persistence of eating disorders, to gain a deeper understanding of their etiology and symptoms.
Anastasia Grygoryeva
B.A. in progress, Psychology, Volunteer Research Assistant
anastasia.grygoryeva@ucalgary.ca
Anastasia currently supports a research study on eating behaviours in South Asian Canadian women. Her research interests span several areas ing industrial-organizational, clinical, and counseling psychology, and topics such as eating behaviours, corporate social responsibility, sexual harassment, and postpartum depression in immigrant mothers.