About Us

Leslie Brick, PhD

is a behavioral scientist working to apply interdisciplinary and multi-method approaches to understanding and identifying environmental, social, and biological mechanisms that influence human behavior and emotion. Dr. Brick's substantive focus is in periods of risk and transition and their relationship to the development and prevention of stress sensitive disorders such as substance use, post traumatic stress, and depression. Dr. Brick's doctoral training at URI was focused on advanced analytic and statistical methodology. Dr. Brick's prior research involves the integration of genetics, naturalistic in vivo measurement of behavior using multiple methods (e.g., momentary ecological assessment [EMA], electronically activated recordings [EAR], self-report, computer tasks, psychophysiology, and clinical interview). Leslie's quantitative expertise is  in structural equation modeling (SEM) and latent variable modeling approaches to longitudinal methods, mixture modeling, multilevel modeling, and quantitative genetics. 

Rich Jones, ScD

is an an investigator in the area of mental health and aging, with a specific focus on the epidemiology of cognitive aging, cognitive reserve, and environmental influences on cognitive function. Cognitive reserve is a hypothesis proposing that personal experiences and characteristics (e.g., educational attainment) provide a buffer against the clinical effects of underlying disease. Rich is epidemiologist and methodologist. He trained in Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Department of Mental Hygiene. 

Zachary Kunicki, PhD, MS, MPH 

is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and serves as the assistant director of the Quantitative Science Program. His research focuses on the factors that alter trajectories of cognitive aging, with particular interests in delirium, depression, and dementia. His background is mainly in quantitative methods, specializing in psychometrics and longitudinal data analysis.

Download a description of DPHB research cores (docx)