Dr. Belinda Borrelli, PhD is Professor and Director of The Center for Behavioral Science Research at Boston University, in the Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research at Boston University, Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. She is also the PI and Director of BU's Mobile and Electronic Health-ARC. In 2013, she was invited to be a Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester, UK., and continues in that role. She was formally a Professor at Brown University, in both the School of Public Health and the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, and since transitioning to BU, maintains an adjunct Professorship at Brown. Dr. Borrelli received her MA and PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and completed her residency and fellowship training in Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at Brown University. She proceeded through the academic ranks at Brown University and became Full Professor there in 2009.
Dr. Borrelli is a Clinical Psychologist specializing in motivating behavior change, with over 175 peer-reviewed publications. She has held over 25+ NIH grant awards as PI and Co-I, and numerous grant awards from other agencies and foundations. Over the past 25+ years, Prof. Borrelli’s research has focused on developing and testing treatments to motivate health behavior change across a wide variety of areas (smoking and vaping cessation, secondhand smoke reduction, improving oral health and dietary behaviors, promoting adherence to medications and treatment regimens for chronic diseases including sleep apnea, cystic fibrosis, and asthma). She specializes in integrating theory-based treatments into medical, dental and community settings, and developing and testing mobile health platforms to initiate and sustain health behavior change (text messaging, mobile apps, Virtual Reality, Gen-AI conversational agents).
Dr. Borrelli was appointed by the Secretary of HHS to serve on the National Advisory Dental and Craniofacial Research Council. She is Chair of NIA's Data, Safety & Monitoring Board. She has has served on grant review panels in the US, Europe, and the UK and is a Fellow of the American College of Reviewers. She served as an advisor to multiple NIH institutes on treatment fidelity (NIDCR, NHLBI, NIA), has published several invited articles on best practice guidelines that have over 5,000 citations, and was invited to the National Academy of Science and Engineering to speak on the topic. She provided expert testimony to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on motivating health behavior change. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, The Society of Behavioral Medicine, and The Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco. Dr. Borrelli is a member of several journal editorial boards. She has been Associate Editor or Senior Associate Editor at leading journals in psychology (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and Health Psychology) and the most cited journal in addiction science (Addiction). She Co-Edited a special issue of Health Psychology on mHealth and eHealth interventions. She is currently Associate Editor of "American Psychologist," the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association. She has taught Motivational Interviewing to health care practitioners in the US and abroad, and has given over 100 invited talks nationally and internationally. She was named "TEDMED Research Scholar" in 2015. In 2017, she received BU's Research Collaborator of the Year award, from the Office of Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research & The Evans Center. She served as primary mentor to over 40 interns, post-docs, and NIH K award recipients.
Director
Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine
Center for Behavioral Sciences Research
Member
Boston University
BU-BMC Cancer Center
Member
Boston University
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
Visiting Professor
University of Manchester, UK School of Psychological Sciences
Centre for Health Psychology
Adjunct Professor
Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University & The Miriam Hospital
Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Adjunct Professor
Brown University School of Public Health
Behavioral and Social Sciences
2026 47th Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, Chicago, IL:
Citation abstract award winner
2025 Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology :
Top-cited article
2022 International Association of Dental Research :
Giddon Award for Distinguished Research in Behavioral Sciences (Group award)
2020 The Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco:
Fellow
2019 The Society of Behavioral Medicine:
Fellow
2017 Evans Center:
Research Collaborator of the Year Award
2015 TEDMED:
TEDMED Research Scholar
2015 Boston University, Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine:
Outstanding New Faculty Member
2014 Brown University School of Medicine:
Teaching Award Nomination
2014-2015 Health Psychology:
Invited Editor
2013 Brown University School of Medicine:
Teaching Award Nomination
2013 University of Manchester, United Kingdom:
Visiting Professor
2013-2014 American Psychological Association:
Invited Member, Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology
2012 Fellow, The American Psychological Association
2012 Health Psychology:
Fellow, Division 38
2011 Brown University School of Medicine:
Teaching Award Nomination
2010 Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology:
Invited Editor
2010 Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation:
Honorary Editorial Board
2010 Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA):
Invited Expert Testimony on Evidence-Based Health Behavior Interventions
2008 Psychology Research and Behaviour Management:
Invited Member, Honorary Editorial Board
2007 Medscape:
Editor's Top Pick (Psychiatry)
2007 Medscape:
Most-Read Article of 2006
2006 Blue Cross/Blue Shield:
Award for Improving Health Quality Outcomes
2002-2013 Invited Keynote Speaker and Grand Rounds Speaker
1998 Brown University School of Medicine:
Teaching Award Nomination
1996 Lifespan/Brown University Consortium of Hospitals:
Young Investigator Award
1996 Brown University School of Medicine:
Postdoctoral Research Award, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
1996 Society of Behavioral Medicine:
Presidential Research Citation Award
1993-1994 University of Illinois at Chicago, Graduate College:
Fellowship Award
1992 University of Illinois at Chicago:
Commendation from the Division of Clinical Psychology
1991 Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society