Education
University of Southern California -PhD Candidate, 2014; Fontbonne University - Psychology, BA, 2009
Background
Molly Brightman is a third year doctoral student and research assistant in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine. She is working towards her Ph.D. in Health Behavior Research. Her current research project focuses on personalized medicine for smoking cessation with a translational focus. She is specifically interested in applying Diffusion Theory to this project and examining specific characteristics that would make such tools more likely to be recommended by a physician - thus helping to speed the translation of such genetic findings into clinical applications and methods. As a secondary part of this project, she is also building an online resource for researchers or clinicians interested in research studies on personalized approaches to smoking cessation. Her other research interests include biobehavioral and psychosocial determinants of drug addiction. She is specifically interested in drug use outcome expectancies and their role in the onset and maintenance of habitual drug use. Her interests cut across other addictive behaviors, as well as overall health and well being. In May 2009, Molly completed her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Biology at Fontbonne University in Saint Louis, Missouri.