Diana Fishbein, PhD
Director of Translational NeuroPrevention Research
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute
Dr. Fishbein is the Director of Translational Neuro-Prevention Research in the FPG Child Development Institute at University of North Carolina. She is also part-time research faculty in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. She hold positions as Adjunct Professor at University of Maryland School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University and University of California, Irvine, as well as a faculty subcontractor at Georgetown University, and a Guest Researcher at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program. Dr. Fishbein’s studies use transdisciplinary methods and a developmental approach to understanding interactions between neurobiological processes and environmental factors. Her research supports the premise that underlying neurobiological mechanisms interact with the quality of our psychosocial experiences and environmental contexts to alter trajectories either towards or away from risk behaviors. Her work further suggests that compensatory mechanisms can be strengthened with the appropriate psychosocial and environmental manipulations. She has published extensively and serves in an advisory capacity for federal and state government bodies as well as several universities and organizations. Given the inherent translational nature of this research, she founded and directs the National Prevention Science Coalition for Improving Lives (NPSC), a national organization dedicated to the transfer of knowledge from the basic sciences to practices in real world settings and public health policies. Through dissemination and advocacy, she actively informs the decision-making of federal and state level policymakers and agency administrators about the value and utility of prevention science to increase uptake of best practices.