Dr. Boutelle is a Professor of Pediatrics, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity and Psychiatry at UC San Diego and is a licensed clinical psychologist. She has specialized in studying and treating weight management and eating disorders since 1992 and has been consistently funded by NIH since 2002. Dr. Boutelle has an undergraduate degree in Food Science and Nutrition from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Health Psychology from Illinois Institute of Technology. She completed her clinical internship at University of Mississippi Medical Center, and her postdoctoral fellowship in Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota.
The focus of Dr. Boutelle’s academic investigations is to target overeating in children, adolescents and adults who are overweight and/or have binge eating. To accomplish this, her work bridges clinical psychology, parenting skills, neuroscience, cognitive science and behavioral therapy. Dr. Boutelle’s research has two goals: 1) To identify targets for behavioral treatment of overeating and obesity, and to translate these programs to the clinics, and 2) Develop novel targets for the treatment of overeating and obesity, based on cognitive science and neuroscience.
Dr. Boutelle is a certified therapist, supervisor and trainer for Family-Based Therapy for the treatment of eating disorders in youth. She is a clinical specialist who works with families and individuals struggling with binge eating disorder, weight management, anorexia, bulimia, EDNOS, and other gastroenterological problems. Dr. Boutelle loves cycling and yoga, and has three children and two dogs and enjoys doing yoga and bike riding in her spare time.