Sabine Wilhelm, PhD

Sabine Wilhelm, Ph.D., is the Donovan-Chien Family Endowed Professor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School, Chief, Division of Psychology at Mass General Brigham (MGB), Director of the Center for Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders (CORD) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and Director of the Center for Digital Mental Health (CDMH) at MGH.

In response to rising mental health needs and a global mental health workforce shortage, Dr. Wilhelm’s work focuses on developing scalable digital and AI-powered approaches to mental health assessment and treatment. She has developed and tested smartphone-based interventions for depression, anxiety, suicidality, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder. Her current research includes AI-supported methods to improve the detection of high-risk behaviors and suicidality, machine learning algorithms to match patients with treatments, and generative AI tools to support more personalized and effective interventions. Across this work, her goal is to expand global access to high-quality mental health care through technology-enabled solutions.

Dr. Wilhelm has published more than 380 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, with an h-index of 97, and has authored or edited nine books. She has served as principal investigator or site principal investigator on numerous NIMH- and foundation-funded clinical research grants examining pharmacologic, cognitive-behavioral, digital, and other treatments for psychiatric disorders in children and adults.

Dr. Wilhelm’s honors include the Aaron T. Beck Award from the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies, the Peter K. Ranney Innovation Award from the World Medical Innovation Forum, the 2023 NAMI Scientific Research Award, and, most recently, the International OCD Foundation’s Career Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding and lasting contributions to OCD and related disorders.

She has held national and international leadership roles, including Fellow and Past President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and Fellow of the American Psychological Society. She chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the International OCD Foundation and is a founding board member of the Society for Digital Mental Health. Her work has been featured in Time Magazine, the New York Times, CNN.com, the Discovery Channel, and many other media outlets.