Linda Collins

About

Linda M. Collins is a Professor of Global Public Health in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at NYU School of Global Public Health, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biostatistics. Her research focuses on the development, dissemination, and application of the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), a framework aimed at enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and scalability of behavioral, biobehavioral, and social-structural interventions. Collins has collaborated on research applying MOST in areas such as smoking cessation, prevention of excessive drinking and risky sexual behavior in college students, and HIV services. Her work has been funded by prominent agencies including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Science Foundation. Collins has delivered over 150 presentations worldwide on MOST and has published in journals across behavioral science, quantitative methodology, medicine, and engineering. She has held tenured faculty positions at the University of Southern California and Penn State University, where she was a Distinguished Professor and Director of The Methodology Center. Her contributions have been recognized through numerous awards and honors, including fellowships in major psychological and behavioral societies, and she has received awards such as the Fulbright Specialist and the Society for Prevention Research President’s Award.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychology
• Internal medicine
• Psychiatry
• Political Science
• Clinical psychology
• Nursing
• Gerontology
• Sociology
• Physical therapy

Selected publications

• Black and Latino Persons Living with HIV Evidence Risk and Resilience in the Context of COVID-19: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Early Phase of the Pandemic

  AIDS and Behavior · 2021 · 71 citations

  DOI

• Intervention Optimization: A Paradigm Shift and Its Potential Implications for Clinical Psychology

  Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · 2024-02-05 · 53 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  To build a coherent knowledge base about what psychological intervention strategies work, develop interventions that have positive societal impact, and maintain and increase this impact over time, it is necessary to replace the classical treatment package research paradigm. The multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) is an alternative paradigm that integrates ideas from behavioral science, engineering, implementation science, economics, and decision science. MOST enables optimization of interven…

  PublisherDOI

• Optimization of a technology‐supported physical activity promotion intervention for breast cancer survivors: Results from Fit2Thrive

  Cancer · 2021 · 36 citations

  BACKGROUND: The benefits of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for breast cancer survivors are well established. However, most are insufficiently active. Fit2Thrive used the Multiphase Optimization Strategy methodology to determine the effect of 5 intervention components on MVPA in this population. METHODS: Two hundred sixty-nine participants (mean age, 52.5 years; SD, 9.9 years) received a core intervention (the Fit2Thrive self-monitoring app and Fitbit) and were randomly assigned to…

  DOI

• Investigation of Active Ingredients Within Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression

  JAMA Psychiatry · 2023-06-28 · 34 citations

  articleOpen access

  Importance: There is limited understanding of how complex evidence-based psychological interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression work. Identifying active ingredients may help to make therapy more potent, brief, and scalable. Objective: To test the individual main effects and interactions of 7 treatment components within internet-delivered CBT for depression to investigate its active ingredients. Design, Setting, and Participants: This randomized optimization trial u…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A posterior expected value approach to decision-making in the multiphase optimization strategy for intervention science.

  Psychological Methods · 2023-04-13 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access

  factorial optimization trial use a component screening approach (CSA) to select intervention components for inclusion in an optimized intervention. In this approach, scientists review all estimated main effects and interactions to identify the important ones based on a fixed threshold, and then base decisions about component selection on these important effects. We propose an alternative posterior expected value approach based on Bayesian decision theory. This new approach aims to be easier to a…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R23DA003673

  NIH · $60k · 1986

• Reinvigorating HIV Prevention and Care for People Who Use Drugs: Accelerating Progress and Sustaining Gains in the Midst of Societal Disruption

  NIH · $31.7M · 1998–2028

• NIH Grant P50CA143188

  NIH · $3.0M · 2014

Frequent coauthors

• William B. Hansen

  27 shared

• Jessica W. Cook

  William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital

  27 shared

• Megan E. Piper

  26 shared

• John W. Graham

  24 shared

• Marya Gwadz

  New York University

  23 shared

• Robert Freeman

  23 shared

• Stephanie T. Lanza

  Pennsylvania State University

  23 shared

• C. Anderson Johnson

  Vanderbilt University Medical Center

  21 shared

Awards & honors

• Fulbright Specialist, National University of Ireland Galway…
• Pauline Schmitt Russell Distinguished Career Award, Pennsylv…
• Evan G. and Helen G. Pattishall Outstanding Research Achieve…
• President’s Award, Society for Prevention Research (2004)
• Faculty Scholar Medal for the Social and Behavioral Sciences…

Similar researchers at New York University

• David B Abramsh-138
• Jennifer Cantrellh-36
• Adolfo Cuevash-23