Tanya M. Spruill, PhD

I am a clinical psychologist and behavioral scientist in the Departments of Population Health and Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a member of NYU Langone’s Institute for Excellence in Health Equity. My research focuses on developing and evaluating scalable, culturally sensitive psychosocial interventions that can mitigate the adverse impact of stress and related risk factors on chronic disease outcomes. 

I am currently conducting clinical trials to test effects of psychosocial interventions on depression, stress, health outcomes and quality of life in diverse chronic disease populations including epilepsy, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. I have been contact PI of NYU’s Collaborating Center in the CDC-funded Managing Epilepsy Well (MEW) Network since 2014. Our team adapted UPLIFT, a depression self-management program developed for people with epilepsy, for the Hispanic community and we continue to evaluate and optimize the program. I am also Co-Director of the Coordinating Center for the RESTORE Network, an AHA-funded health equity research network that is testing innovative community-based strategies to address social determinants of health and prevent hypertension in Black communities. In addition, I am MPI of the NHLBI-funded Jackson Heart Study Hypertension Working Group, a collaboration between NYU, Columbia University and University of Alabama at Birmingham established in 2013 to identify novel predictors of hypertension and CVD outcomes in a large cohort of Black adults. Most recently, I am PI of a NIMHD-funded trial to evaluate a Zoom-based mindfulness intervention in Black women with uncontrolled hypertension in this cohort. 

The long-term goal of my work is to implement and disseminate evidence-based psychosocial interventions that can improve mental health equity and reduce chronic disease disparities.