Edna Foa (born 1937,

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

) is an Israeli professor of clinical psychology at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, where she serves as the director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety. Foa is an internationally renowned authority in the field of psychopathology and treatment of anxiety. She approaches the understanding and treatment of mental disorders from a cognitive-behavioral perspective.

Academic career

Foa was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family and earned her BA in psychology and literature from

Bar Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...

in 1962, and her MA in clinical psychology from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

in 1970. In that same year she completed her PhD in clinical psychology and personality at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

. Her research, aimed at determining causes and treatments of

anxiety disorders Anxiety disorders are a cluster of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal function are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause physi ...

, has been highly influential. Foa is an expert in

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats o ...

s (PTSD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The program she has developed for rape survivors is considered to be one of the most effective therapies for PTSD. She has published several books and over 200 articles and book chapters, has lectured extensively around the world, and was the chair of the PTSD work group of the

DSM-IV The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langu ...

. Foa's research interests are development and evaluation of cognitive-behavioral treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and

social anxiety disorder Social anxiety disorder (SAD), also known as social phobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by sentiments of fear and anxiety in social situations, causing considerable distress and impaired ability to function in at least some aspects o ...

(SAD); experimental psychopathology of

, especially post-traumatic stress disorder,

social phobia Social anxiety disorder (SAD), also known as social phobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by sentiments of fear and anxiety in social situations, causing considerable distress and impaired ability to function in at least some aspects o ...

, and obsessive-compulsive disorder; and dissemination of evidence-based treatment to mental health professionals.

Awards and honors

Foa is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including: * ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine's

100 Most Influential People in the World ''Time'' 100 (often stylized as ''TIME'' 100) is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine '' Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, ...

for 2010 * Distinguished Scientist Award from the Scientific section of the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

* The First Annual Outstanding Research Contribution Award from the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy
ABCT
* The Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Clinical Psychology Award from the

* Lifetime Achievement Award from the

International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies is a professional network established on March 2, 1985, in Washington, D.C. It is Seeks disseminate the state of the science as it pertains to the effects of trauma. History The organization ...

* Exemplary Contribution to the Field of Psychology and Humanity Philadelphia Society of Clinical Psychologists * Exemplary Substance Abuse Prevention Program Award from SAMHSA/CSAP, CADCA, and NASADAD * Annual Signature Service Award from Women Organized Against Rape * Honorary Doctorate Degree of Philosophy by

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

* The Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association (PBTA) Lifetime Achievement Award

References

External links

"Queen of Broken Hearts"
'' Haaretz''. August 6, 2010. Interview with Foa on the treatment of PTSD. {{DEFAULTSORT:Foa, Edna 1937 births Obsessive–compulsive disorder researchers Israeli psychologists Living people Israeli women psychologists

Academic career

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links