Foundation Professor, Arizona State U
My work as a psychologist has spanned 4 decades, providing me with extensive experience in research methods, intervention design and evaluation, and a seasoned appreciation of the central value of social relations in resilience within people, across organizations and throughout communities.. My accomplishments in these areas have led to advances in their respective fields of study and have shaped my career at Arizona State University (ASU), where I serve as a Foundation Professor within the Department of Psychology. I am also the Chairman of the Board of the Social Intelligence Institute, a non-profit we formed to support the development, testing and distribution of our interventions. In my teaching and research, I have examined fundamental questions in behavioral health such as the restorative role of positive social engagement and the sources of vulnerability in social relations that increase risk of health and mental health difficulties, leading to over 180 published works. My training in these fields of inquiry has been substantial, guided by prominent scholars and innovators in their disciplines: Professor Bruce Dohrenwend, at Columbia University in public health, Professor Fredrick Herzberg at the University of Utah in Management, and Professor Ernst Beier, also at the University of Utah in Clinical Psychology. This foundation across key disciples propelled my career forward allowing me to be funded as principal investigator from major grants from by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases over the past 30 years. My current work focuses on the development of public health interventions that further the humanization of social relations across the life span. I am the lead investigator (with my colleague, Professor Frank Infurna, as MPI) in a R01 grant funded by NIA late last year to test the value of an on-line program in social intelligence.
Key research Interests: social relations interventions, resilience to chronic and acute stressors within individuals and across communities
Skype: Alex.Zautra1
