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National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders

Our Mission

Our mission is to advance education and training of healthcare providers and to promote public awareness of eating disorders and eating disorder treatment.

NCEED is the nation’s first center of excellence dedicated to eating disorders. Founded in 2018 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, our mission is to advance education and training of healthcare providers and to promote public awareness of eating disorders and eating disorder treatment.

Based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NCEED includes clinicians, researchers, and advocates who specialize in eating disorder care. We are committed to providing up-to-date, reliable, and evidence-based information.

Our goal is to ensure that all individuals with eating disorders are identified, treated, and supported in recovery. Though eating disorders are serious conditions, they can be identified and treated effectively – particularly when providers and the public have the knowledge and skills necessary to make a difference.

Click here for a PDF overview of NCEED!

LEADERSHIP

NCEED Leadership Team

Christine Peat

Christine Peat, PhD, FAED, LP

Director

Dr. Christine Peat is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Jean Doak

Jean Doak, PhD

Deputy Director

Dr. Jean Doak is a Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Director in the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Cynthia Bulik

Cynthia Bulik, PhD, FAED

Senior Faculty

Dr. Cynthia M. Bulik is the Founding Director of the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders.

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NCEED Staff

La-Shell Johnson
Courtenay Pierce

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© Copyright 2023 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All rights reserved.

Funding for the National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders was made possible by Grant No. H79SM081924 from SAMHSA of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, SAMHSA/HHS or the U.S. Government.

Christine Peat, PhD, FAED, LP
Director

Dr. Christine Peat is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). She completed her undergraduate training in Psychology at the University of Arizona and earned her Master’s degree and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Dakota. Her internship was in behavioral medicine at West Virginia University, after which she went on to complete her post-doctoral fellowship in eating disorders research at UNC. Currently, Dr. Peat works as both a researcher and a clinician who focuses on eating pathology across the spectrum, but with a distinct focus on binge-eating disorder. She is particularly interested in the intersection between obesity, bariatric surgery, and eating pathology and investigating physiological comorbidities associated with eating disorders.

Dr. Peat is also a licensed psychologist in North Carolina and as such, treats eating disorders across the spectrum. Given her background in behavioral medicine, she has also established clinical services in GI Surgery where she provides both psychotherapy and behavioral medicine interventions to this patient population. In addition to her clinical and research responsibilities, Dr. Peat is also the Associate Director of Program Development in the Clinical Psychology Internship Program at UNC.

Conflicts of Interest Statement:
Dr. Peat does not report any potentially competing financial interests.

Jean Doak, PhD
Deputy Director

Dr. Jean Doak is a Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Director in the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Dr. Doak has held various positions in academic medicine, non-profit, and for-profit organizations and within various levels of care. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Biology from Houston Baptist University, a Master of Arts in Psychology from University of Houston – Clear Lake, and a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Houston. Dr. Doak completed her clinical internship at the University of Texas Medical Branch with a specialization in pediatric psychology and completed a LEAH (Leadership in Education and Adolescent Health) post-doctoral fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital, focusing on education, training and clinical practice in adolescent medicine/mental health with a specialization in eating disorders.

She has extensive training in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Enhanced Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT-E) for Eating Disorders through the Centre for Research on Eating Disorders at Oxford, and Maudsley Family-Based Treatment (FBT). In addition to clinical practice, her work has focused on clinical training, consultation, program development, research/training/practice integration, and clinical operations. Dr. Doak’s most recent positions include: Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital and Regional Director at Cleveland Center for Eating Disorders/The Emily Program.

Conflicts of Interest Statement:
Dr. Doak reports the following potentially competing financial interest: income or honorarium from Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Allergan PLC (Naurex Inc., an indirect subsidiary of Allergan, PLC).

Cynthia Bulik, PhD, FAED
Senior Faculty

Dr. Cynthia M. Bulik is the Founding Director of the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders, Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine, Professor of Nutrition in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Professor in the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden where she directs the Centre for Eating Disorders Innovation.

A clinical psychologist, Dr. Bulik received her BA from the University of Notre Dame and her MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed internships and post-doctoral fellowships at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She was the lead principal investigator of the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative (ANGI) and is founder and co-chair of the Eating Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. She has active research collaborations in over twenty countries and has published over 600 papers and chapters on eating disorders.

Dr. Bulik is past president of the Academy for Eating Disorders, past vice-president of the Eating Disorders Coalition, past associate editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders, and she has served on clinical or scientific advisory committees for the Global Foundation for Eating Disorders, Project Heal, and F.E.A.S.T.

Dr. Bulik has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Eating Disorders Coalition Research Award, the Academy for Eating Disorders Leadership Award for Research, the Price Family National Eating Disorders Association Research Award, IAEDP Honorary Certified Eating Disorders Specialist Award, the Academy for Eating Disorders Meehan/Hartley Award for Advocacy, and the Don and Melissa Nielsen Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Eating Disorders Association.

She is author of seven books including Crave, The Woman in the Mirror, Midlife Eating Disorders, and Binge Control: A Compact Recovery Guide. Read more at www.cynthiabulik.com.

Conflicts of Interest Statement:
Dr. Bulik reports the following potentially competing financial interests: A grant recipient and Scientific Advisory Board member at Shire as well as an author and royalty recipient from Pearson and Walker.

Dr. Bulik reports the following potentially competing non-financial interests: Clinical Advisory Board with Project Heal; Advisory Panel with FEAST; Advisory Council member at the Carolina Resource Center for Eating Disorders; Media Expert Panel for the Coalition for the Advancement and Application of Psychological Science; Scientific Advisory Panel for the Global Foundation for Eating Disorders.

Dr. Bulik also serves as a collaborator with OpenBiome and Recovery Record as well as a grant recipient and collaborator with uBiome.