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Rebecca S. Allen

Professor

Education

  • PhD, Washington University in St. Louis

Research Areas

  • Clinical training issues (e.g., substance and opioid use disorders, empowering underserved communities to facilitate effective treatment delivery through community-based partnerships, health and mental health disparities)
  • The cultural dynamics of healthcare and financial decision making
  • Dyadic interventions to reduce the stress of individuals and family care partners within the context of advanced chronic or terminal illness

Bio

Rebecca S. Allen is a First-Generation Scholar who received her PhD from Washington University in St. Louis in 1994. She completed her clinical internship at UAB, a NIMH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at The Pennsylvania State University and became a Research Assistant Professor at UAB prior to coming to UA. She is a member of the APA Committee on Aging (2023-2025), President-Elect of APA Division 20, and past president of both the Society for Clinical Geropsychology and the Council for Professional Geropsycholgy Training Programs. Dr. Allen is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the American Psychological Association. She teaches specialty courses in Geropsychology, Affect and Lifespan Development, and supervises undergraduate research.

Recent Grants

  • 2022-2025       “Responding to the Deep South’s Opioid and Substance Use Crisis (ReDO),” Funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (2D40HP33364), Department of Health and Human Services, TDC $1,349,999, R. S. Allen, Principal Investigator.
  • 2019-2024       “A Mindfulness and Peer Mentoring Program to Improve Adherence to Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders,” Funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health Special Emphasis Panel HEAL Initiative: Behavioral and Social Interventions to Improve Adherence to Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders (R61AT010802/R33AT010802), TDC $2,015,720, M. Mumba, Principal Investigator, R. S. Allen, co-Investigator.
  • 2021-2022       “Local Community‐Based Workforce to Increase COVID‐19 Vaccine Access,” Funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (G32HS42687), Department of Health and Human Services, TDC $ 1,000,000, H. Lee, Principal Investigators, R. S. Allen, co-Investigator.

Centers

  • Alabama Research Institute on Aging

    • Selected Publications

    • Lin, S.S.-H.*, & Allen, R.S. (2024). Greater baseline intra-individual variation in telephone-based cognitive screening predicts cognitive and diagnostic outcomes at 2-year follow-up. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/neu0000959
    • Ly, T.K.*, Allen, R. S., Cundiff, J.M., & DeCaro, J.A. (2024). Investigating the effects of discrimination experiences on everyday metamemory. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 79(8), gbae089 https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbae089 Advance access publication 6 June 2024.
    • Mumba, M. N., Mugoya, G. T., Allen, R. S., Glenn, A., Richman, J, Ghera, A., Butler, A., Rogers, B., Granger, T., & Davis, L. (Accepted, 2024). The methods and baseline characteristics of a multi-site randomized controlled trial evaluating mindfulness-based relapse prevention in conjunction with peer support to improve adherence to medications for opioid use disorders. Frontiers of Psychiatry.
    • Allen, R.S., Lin, S.S.-H.*, Ly, T.K.*, Jacobs, M.L., McKinney, R.E., Cox, B.S., Albright, A.E., Dragan, D.M., Carroll, D., & Halli-Tierney, A. (2024). Substance use screening in geriatric primary care: Cultural issues and alcohol consumption in the Deep South. Clinical Gerontologist. https://doi.org/10.1080/07317115.2024.2326523.
    • Brasfield, M.B.*, Bui, C., Patihis, L., Crowther, M.R., Allen, R. S., & McDonough, I.M. (2024). Self-reported chronic stress is unique across lifetime periods: A test of competing structural equation models. The Gerontologist, 64(2), gnad042. https://org/10.1093/geront/gnad042.
    • Allen, R. S., McIntyre, A.*, Oliver, J.S., Payne-Foster, P., Cox, B.S. Hay-McCutcheon, M.J., Wilson, L., Spencer, C., & Lee, H.Y. (2023). Church leaders share and implement solution-focused health strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic in rural Alabama. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01873-2.
    • Lin, S.S.-H.*, Jacobs, M.L., Halli-Tierney, A., Carroll, D., & Allen, R. S. (2023). Psychometric properties of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) in older adult primary care Clinical Gerontologist. DOI: 10.1080/07317115.2023.2276291.
    • Oliver, J.S., Allen, R. S., Anderson, B.B., Crowley, R.V.*, Peramsetty, G.S., & Payne-Foster, P. (2023). Providers’ perspectives on patient health literacy in the rural Deep South. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 23(2), 186-209. https://doi.org/10.14574/ojrnhc.v23i2.756.
    • Hay-McCutcheon, M.J., Brothers, E.B.*, & Allen, R. S. (2023). An assessment of hearing healthcare needs in rural west central and south Alabama. American Journal of Audiology, 32(3), 487-499. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJA-22-00177.
    • Ma, F., Heintz, H. L., Schmidt, N. E., Carpenter, B. D., Allen, R. S., Dzierzewski, J. M., Mlinac, M. E., Montepare, J. M., & Moye, J. (2023). Building the geropsychology workforce: A national survey and virtual conference define critical obstacles and steps forward. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 54(5), 361-371. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000524.