Rate My Professor Ann Haynos

Ann F. Haynos, Ph.D., is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2015, completed her predoctoral internship at Duke University Medical Center, and her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Prior to her current position, Haynos was on the faculty at the University of Minnesota. Her research centers on the mechanisms underlying excess goal pursuit that leads to destructive health outcomes, primarily restrictive eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, as well as rigid pursuit of other goals like academic or work achievements that result in physical and mental health concerns. Integrating neuroscience and clinical science through a bench-to-bedside approach, she utilizes multi-method strategies including neuroimaging, neurocognitive tasks, ecological momentary assessment, and computational modeling to investigate decision-making processes such as emotion regulation, reward processing, and cognitive control. Haynos develops and adapts neuroscience-informed treatments targeting these mechanisms to promote recovery.

Haynos has earned significant recognition for her contributions, including the 2025 Virginia Commonwealth University National/International Recognition Award (NIRA), where she was principal investigator on two NIH grants during 2024-25. Additional honors include the 2019 Finalist for Informing Prevention Article of the Year from Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, mentorship of the 2018 Best Paper by an Early Career Scholar in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, the National Institute of Mental Health Loan Repayment Program (2018-2022), Fellowship in the Career Development Institute for Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and Stanford University (2018-2020), and the 2017 Award for Postdoctoral Young Scientists from the Global Foundation for Eating Disorders and Eating Disorders Research Society. Key publications encompass 'Beyond description and deficits: How computational psychiatry can enhance an understanding of decision-making in anorexia nervosa' (Current Psychiatry Reports, 2022), 'Adapting a neuroscience-informed intervention to alter reward mechanisms of anorexia nervosa: A novel direction for future research' (Journal of Eating Disorders, 2021), 'Moving towards specificity: A systematic review of cue features associated with reward and punishment in anorexia nervosa' (Clinical Psychology Review, 2020), 'Machine learning enhances prediction of illness course: A longitudinal study in eating disorders' (Psychological Medicine, 2020), and 'Resting state functional connectivity of networks associated with reward and habit in anorexia nervosa' (Human Brain Mapping, 2019). Her scholarship has amassed over 4,100 citations, underscoring her influence in advancing neuroscience-informed understanding and treatment of eating disorders. She also co-chairs the Health Behaviors Working Group at VCU's Institute for Research on Behavioral and Emotional Health.