Elizabeth Cotter

Dr. Elizabeth Cotter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Studies at American University and Director of the Health, Well-being, and Mindfulness Lab. A licensed psychologist, she focuses on preventing and treating disordered eating and applying mindfulness-based approaches to health behaviors.

• Education: Post-Doc in Health Psychology (Virginia Commonwealth University), Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee), B.A. in Psychology (Michigan State University)

Her research, funded by a K23 grant from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, explores how parent mindfulness affects parental stress, eating, and feeding behaviors. The lab also investigates disordered eating in young men and collaborates on community-based chronic disease prevention studies.

Recent publications span topics including mindfulness interventions for adolescents with obesity, disordered eating disparities among Latinx/Hispanic and White populations, and stress-related eating dynamics. Her work integrates behavioral science, health psychology, and community health promotion.

Grants include projects like "Faithfully Fit" (Co-Investigator, 2019) and "Vivir Sano" (Principal Investigator, 2015–2016), emphasizing community engagement and nutrition education. She teaches courses such as HLTH-350 Health Research Methods and HLTH-681 Research Methodology.