Health Psychology

Tenured

Faculty

Education

• Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• M.A. in Developmental Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• B.A. in Psychology and Mathematics, East Carolina University

Research Interests

Dr. Cecelia Valrie uses health and developmental psychology techniques and theories to study persistent pain, sleep, and other health outcomes in people living with sickle cell disease as well as youth and young adults. She is also focused on testing and improving implementation and dissemination of effective interventions to improve health outcomes in these populations. Dr. Valrie uses a mix of methodologies, including survey, interviews, and mhealth technology that allows for time-sensitive assessments in the environments people live in.   

Select Publications

• Valrie, C., Crawford, B.S., Shipman-Lacewell, J., Ajibade, O., Fuh, B., Smith, W., & Sisler, I. (2024). Investigating home-based opioid use among youth with sickle cell disease using ecological momentary assessment. Pediatric Blood and Cancer, 71(8): e31116.
• Pascale, A., Sisler., I., Smith, W., & Valrie, C. (2023). Intraindividual pain variability metrics for youth with sickle cell disease: Relations to health outcomes. Pediatric Blood and Cancer, 70(4): e30194.
• Valrie, C. R., Alston, K., Morgan, K., Kilpatrick, R., Sisler, I., & Fuh, B. (2021) Pediatric Sickle Cell Pain-Sleep Relationships: The Roles of Positive and Negative Affect. Health Psychology, 40(11): 793-802.
• Valrie, C. R., Alston, K., Fuh, B., Redding-Lallinger, R. & Sisler, I. (2020). Sleep moderating the relationship between pain and health care use in youth with sickle cell disease. Clinical Journal of Pain, 36(2): 117-123.

Courses

• Psyc 412: Health Psychology

Awards

• NIH HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-Term) Initiative Award for Interdisciplinary Collaboration, 2024
• Outstanding Community Engagement Award 2023, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University
  

Links

• VCU psychology professor wins NIH award for research into pediatric pain management (2/20/2024)
• iCubed scholar Cecelia Valrie spearheads pediatric sickle cell research project that was awarded a $420K NIH grant (10/19/2022)