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Geisel’s Lisa Marsch Appointed to Wallace Professorship

Lisa Marsch, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and director of the Dartmouth Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH), has been appointed to the Andrew G. Wallace Professorship at the Geisel School of Medicine.

Lisa Marsch, PhD (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
Lisa Marsch, PhD (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)

“Lisa has built a research program that embodies the spirit of academic excellence that defines the Andrew G. Wallace Professorship,” said Geisel Interim Dean Duane Compton. “Her work with technology to monitor and modify behavior is changing the way that health care is delivered and how people can remotely monitor and treat substance abuse disorders.”

“I am honored to receive this endowed chair named after Dr. Wallace in recognition of his legacy at Dartmouth,” said Marsch. “I understand that in addition to his legacy as a former Dean of the medical school, he was an amazing cardiovascular researcher.”

The Andrew G. Wallace Professorship was originally established as the Gordon W. Russell ’55 Professorship, funded in 1996 by Gordon Russell, a 1955 graduate of Dartmouth College and a longtime member and chair of the medical school’s Board of Overseers. In 1998, as a tribute to Andrew Wallace, who served as dean from 1990 to 1998, Russell requested the professorship be renamed. The Wallace professorship, while not restricted to any discipline, is designated to “enhance a program of established excellence and priority.”

Russell, a U.S. Air Force veteran and successful venture capitalist, has also given generously to Geisel’s annual fund and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, as well as several purposes at Dartmouth College, including the Native American Program, Dartmouth’s Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL), and various athletic programs.

Marsch, who was recruited to Geisel in 2011, has been the principal investigator on 26 grants totaling approximately $50 million in funding, largely from the National Institutes of Health. She has led the development, evaluation, and implementation of technology-based therapeutic tools for addiction treatment, HIV prevention, mental health, chronic pain management, substance abuse prevention, smoking cessation, and obesity. Her work in technology and addiction treatment has been particularly pioneering, as she led the development of the most widely tested and evidence-based mobile intervention for addiction treatment.

Marsch directs the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center and the Dartmouth-based Northeast Node of the National Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network. In addition, Marsch leads a national Science of Behavior Change initiative supported by the National Institutes of Health with partners at Dartmouth, Stanford University, Arizona State University, Drexel University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

CTBH is a designated Center of Excellence supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. It uses science to develop, evaluate, and inform the sustainable implementation of technology-based tools that leverage web, mobile, sensing and/or social media approaches for behavior change across a wide array of populations and health behaviors. These tools are designed to deliver effective health monitoring and health behavior interventions and to collectively lead to transformations in the delivery of science-based health care.

Though CTBH is a national interdisciplinary center based in Geisel, its Dartmouth partners span the college, including the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Thayer School of Engineering, and the College of Arts and Sciences; its external partners span the globe.