Rebecca Thurston, PhD, Appointed Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry
We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Thurston, PhD, FABMR, FSBSM, has been appointed Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh. A distinguished professorship constitutes the highest honor that the University can accord a member of the professoriate.
Dr. Thurston is one of the top international experts in women’s health. At the University of Pittsburgh, she serves as Pittsburgh Foundation Chair in Women's Health and Dementia and Assistant Dean for Women's Health Research, conducting pioneering research in menopause, mental health, and cerebrovascular health in women. Her research sheds light on the physiology of menopausal symptoms and contributes substantially to the development of novel treatments. In addition, she takes a biopsychosocial approach to the investigation of how biological and psychosocial factors impact women’s risk for cardiovascular disease and dementia.
Based upon Dr. Thurston’s work, menopausal hot flashes, the hallmark menopausal symptom, are now understood to be not a benign nuisance, but a female-specific risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Dr. Thurston extended this work to the brain, showing for the first time hot flashes linked to MRI-indicators of cerebrovascular risk and circulating amyloid, processes central to the pathophysiology of dementia.
Dr. Thurston has led numerous National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded K-level, R-level, and U-level grants, as well as NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants. She is principal investigator of the National Institute on Aging-funded Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), and leads one of SWAN’s three scientific projects.
Dr. Thurston has authored 203 original, peer-reviewed papers in top scientific journals across multiple fields, including a 2025 review article on the psychological aspects of menopause published in Nature Reviews Psychology. She is a past president of the Menopause Society and is an elected fellow of both the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Society for Biopsychosocial Science. Earlier this year, Dr. Thurston was accepted as a fellow with the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program. She has received prestigious awards including the International Menopause Society’s Henry Burger Prize.
Dr. Thurston is exceptionally accomplished and influential in training the next generation of scientists in her field. She directs Pitt’s NHLBI-funded Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Research T32 postdoctoral training program and leads an NHLBI K24 grant focused on interdisciplinary mentoring and research in women’s cardiovascular health. She has played a key role in shaping medical student education at the School of Medicine, is a skilled instructor with substantial multidisciplinary experience, and currently serves on the training faculty for 11 T32 programs across multiple University of Pittsburgh schools and departments.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Thurston!