The second Foundation-funded named research fellow has been selected, the Foundation is very pleased to announce today.

Expanding the base of empirical evidence regarding the efficacy of IFS as a clinical protocol has been a key objective of the Foundation for Self Leadership. With four funded independent studies, leading to three publications in peer-reviewed journals so far, the Foundation proceeded two years ago to fund individual researchers.

Meet the New Research Fellow

Diane Joss, PhD, who just started her position as Assistant Professor at the Harvard Medical School, will be completing her fellowship at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a community health agency affiliated with Harvard. As a cognitive neuroscientist, Diane has been comprehensively studying the psychological and neural mechanisms of IFS as well as its clinical effects for a wide range of mental health conditions, such as PTSD and complex PTSD.

Suicide Prevention as Research Focus

Eager to get started, she shared with the Foundation that, among other areas of interest, she is "dedicated to expanding, during this Fellowship, the social impact of IFS by investigating its application in critical public health areas such as suicide prevention." As Executive Director Toufic Hakim, PhD, underscored, this aligns with the Foundation's emerging focus, which is “transitioning toward a more society-facing role, seeking to address national and global crises through the Self-leadership lens.

The Foundation and the IFS community applaud Diane's interest in pursuing these research efforts and wish her well in her scholarly endeavors ahead.