Our team

At the Unified Protocol Institute, all of our trainers are practicing Unified Protocol therapists. Our team is backed by deep academic ties and brings decades of experience to the UPI’s educational programs. We are committed to bridging the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world impact by empowering therapists in the use of a flexible, evidence-based treatment that can meet the complex needs of each unique client.

Jacqueline R. Bullis, Ph.D., Co-director of UPI
Co-director

Jacqueline R. Bullis, PhD

Jacqueline R. Bullis, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Boston University under the mentorship of Dr. David Barlow. She is a licensed clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital with a faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School. Her interests include how to increase access to evidence-based mental health care. In this capacity, she trains practitioners worldwide and works with organizations to develop impact-focused, scalable mental health solutions. She served as the clinical lead and research advisor for Mass General Brigham's implementation of digital behavioral health interventions in primary care, outpatient psychiatry, and employee assistance programs for eight years and is the co-director of the digital CBT clinical at McLean Hospital. Dr. Bullis has authored numerous publications on evidence-based treatments for anxiety disorders and is co-author of the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders, an Oxford University Treatments That Work series.
Clair Robbins, Ph.D., Co-director of UPI
Co-director

Clair Robbins, PhD

Dr. Robbins received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Boston University where she focused on the development and evaluation of the Unified Protocol (UP) under the mentorship of Dr. David Barlow. As part of her work, she specialized in the application of the UP to dysregulated anger. Dr. Robbins completed a predoctoral internship at the Durham VA and postdoctoral training at the Center for Misophonia and Emotion Regulation at Duke University Medical Center. She is a co-author of the UP and an expert national trainer. Dr. Robbins is a licensed clinical psychologist and currently works at Triangle Area Psychology Clinic in Durham, NC, where she provides clinical services to patients and trains therapists to deliver the UP. She has published numerous peer-review papers on the development, adaptation, and evaluation of transdiagnostic treatments. She is passionate about providing evidence-based treatments to patients and training providers to deliver these treatments.
Christina Wagner, MBA, Administrative Lead
Administrative lead

Christina Wagner, MBA

Christina graduated from Bryant University with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting. She later received her Masters degree in Business Administration at the University of New Haven. Her early career involved various accounting and finance functions in Healthcare and Technology Consulting settings. She earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification as her role evolved to consulting on client engagements. Her passion is customer service and business process improvement.
Rachel J. Ammirati, PhD, ABPP, Lead expert trainer and consultant
Lead expert trainer and consultant

Rachel J. Ammirati, PhD, ABPP

Rachel J. Ammirati, PhD, ABPP, received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Emory University, and she is board certified in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). She is a licensed, practicing psychologist who specializes in integrated care and providing cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy services, including the Unified Protocol (UP), to adults living with HIV. Dr. Ammirati is an expert UP trainer and therapist and co-author of the most recent version of the UP Therapist Adherence Rating Scale. She routinely gives presentations on the UP, supervises psychology and psychiatry trainees in the UP, and provides UP consultation services to licensed mental health providers. Separate from her work with the Unified Protocol Institute, Dr. Ammirati is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, and she is based clinically within the Grady Health System in Atlanta, GA. Her scholarly interests include science-practice integration, scientific skepticism, cognitive-behavioral approaches to treatment, integrated care, and brief models of psychotherapy.
Director of outreach

Joel Wyatt, PhD

Joel Wyatt, PhD, received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma-focused treatment, working with military service members, veterans, and their families. Dr. Wyatt is an expert trainer in the Unified Protocol and serves as the Director of Outreach. He routinely uses the Unified Protocol (UP) in his clinical practice, administering the UP in a massed-treatment format. Further, he routinely gives presentations and workshops on the UP. He trains mental health professionals from a variety of fields and developmental levels, from novice trainees to seasoned licensed professionals in the UP. Aside from work with the Unified Protocol Institute, Dr. Wyatt is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL. He serves as the Training Program Manager for the Road Home Program: The Center of Excellence for Veterans and their Families at Rush. His scholarly interests include military culture and evidenced-based psychotherapies delivered in accelerated or massed formats.

Advisors

The Unified Protocol Institute maintains a dedicated advisory team, including the developers of the Unified Protocol. This strategic partnership ensures fidelity between entities in the core principles and practices of the UP, integration of new research findings, and a collaborative approach to our shared mission of making evidence-based mental healthcare more accessible on a global scale.

David H. Barlow, PhD, Director emeritus, Chair, UPI Advisory Board
Director emeritus

Chair, UPI Advisory Board

David H. Barlow, PhD

David H. Barlow completed his undergraduate work at the University of Notre Dame and received his Ph.D. from the University of Vermont in 1969. Throughout his long career, he has become a leading expert in cognitive-behavioral approaches to the treatment of anxiety and related emotional disorders, having published over 650 articles and 90 books and clinical manuals on this topic. Dr. Barlow has also dedicated his career to training others in empirically supported treatments. He founded clinical psychology internship programs at both the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Brown University. While at the University at Albany, SUNY, Dr. Barlow established the Phobia and Anxiety Disorders Clinic, where many of his clinical protocols were developed and tested. When Dr. Barlow moved to Boston University in 1996, he founded the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, a world-renowned clinic for cutting edge cognitive-behavioral treatment of emotional disorders. Over the past decade, Dr. Barlow and his colleagues developed the Unified Protocol in response to emerging research on the nature of anxiety and related disorders, or emotional disorders.
Todd J. Farchione, PhD, Director, UP Lab at BUVice-chair, UPI Advisory Board
Director, UP Lab at BU

Vice-chair, UPI Advisory Board

Todd J. Farchione, PhD

Todd J. Farchione completed his undergraduate work at Wayne State University and received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2001. Dr. Todd Farchione is a Research Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University (BU). For over fifteen years, he has been a member of the clinical research group at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at BU (CARD). Dr. Farchione's research is focused on understanding emotion regulation processes, identifying mechanisms of change in treatment, and on developing new preventative measures and improved treatments for emotional disorders. Dr. Farchione is one of the co-developers of the UP and has collaborated with Dr. David Barlow and others on several research studies aimed at the development and evaluation of that treatment protocol.

UPI Expert trainers

The UPI has cultivated a nationwide network of academics and psychologists to help us expand access to high-quality, evidence-based treatments for clients everywhere. Our UPI expert trainers work in direct collaboration with the UPI team to support our mission to make high-quality, evidence-based psychological treatment accessible to all.

  • Rachel Ammirati, Ph.D., Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA

  • Kate Bentley, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

  • Rebecca Berman, LCSW, MLSP, CEDS-C, Anxiety Institute, McLean, VA

  • James F. Boswell, Ph.D., University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY

  • Jacqueline Bullis, Ph.D., Unified Protocol Institute, McLean Hospital, Boston, MA

  • Laren Conklin, Ph.D., Proven Pathways Psychotherapy, Columbus, OH

  • Mike Drury, Psy.D., Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, FL

  • Kristen K. Ellard, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

  • Elizabeth H. Eustis, Ph.D., Boston University, Boston, MA

  • Jill Ehrenreich May, Ph.D. (Child and Adolescent Applications), University of Miami, Miami, FL

  • Todd J. Farchione, Ph.D., Boston University, Boston, MA

  • Clair Robbins, Ph.D., Unified Protocol Institute, Triangle Area Psychology Clinic, Durham, NC

  • Julianne Wilner, Ph.D., McLean Hospital, Boston, MA

  • Joel Wyatt Ph.D., Rush Medical Center, Chicago, IL