Jack J. Blanchard

Jack J. Blanchard, Ph.D., is an Associate Provost for Enterprise Resource Planning and Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is affiliated with the Brain and Behavior Institute and serves as Academic Director of the Master of Professional Studies program in Clinical Psychological Science. Previously, he held roles as Department Chair and Director of Clinical Training.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook (1991)
• B.S. in Psychology, Arizona State University (1984)
• NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow at Medical College of Pennsylvania (1990-1992)

Research Interests: Dr. Blanchard’s work focuses on emotion-behavior interactions in psychotic disorders, particularly schizophrenia. His laboratory (LEAP) employs fMRI, smartphone-based ecological assessments, and actigraphy to study:

• Social affiliation deficits and paranoia
• Neural correlates of motivation and reward processing
• Impact of sleep on symptom severity
• Clinical and behavioral assessment innovations

Publication Trends: Recent articles (2020-2025) demonstrate a strong emphasis on transdiagnostic approaches, integrating neuroimaging with real-world behavioral tracking to examine social reward processing, pandemic-related mental health impacts, and sleep-psychosis comorbidities. Methodological themes include fMRI, smartphone assessments, and longitudinal designs.

Awards and Honors:

• Joel and Kim Feller Professorship (2016)
• Excellence in Teaching Mentorship Award
• Fellow, Association for Psychological Science

Mentoring and Grants: Actively trains graduate/undergraduate researchers through LEAP lab. Secured major funding including:

• NIMH grants for neural correlates of social affiliation/paranoia
• University of Maryland Brain and Behavior Initiative awards for wearable tech integration

Laboratory and Collaborations: Directs the Laboratory of Emotion and Psychopathology (LEAP), collaborating with psychiatry departments and neuroscientists. Focuses on minority-representative samples and integrates clinical, behavioral, and technological methodologies.