Heather Niemeier, PhD

Staff Psychologist
The Miriam Hospital

Assistant Professor (Research) 
Dept. of Psychiatry & Human Behavior
Brown Medical School 

Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine

Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center

196 Richmond Street

Providence RI 02903

Phone: (401) 793-8980
Email: hniemeier@lifespan.org
Fax: (401) 793-8944 

Heather M. Niemeier, PhD is an assistant professor (research) in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown Medical School and a staff psychologist at The Miriam Hospital. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Niemeier completed her predoctoral internship in behavioral medicine at Brown University and her postdoctoral research fellowship at Brown in the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center. Her research interests are in the treatment of obesity with an emphasis on improving behavioral weight loss treatments to better address emotional and cognitive factors.  She was awarded a K23 award from NIH/NIDDK in 2006.

• National Institute of Mental Health/Academy for Eating Disorders, Junior Investigator Award, 2004.

Addressing emotional and cognitive factors in behavioral weight loss treatment, NIDDK

Heather M. Niemeier, PhD PI)

The goal of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate a behavioral weight loss program that has a major focus on teaching patients distress tolerance and emotion regulation skills with the goal of improving long-term weight loss maintenance.

Wing, R.R., Marinilli, A., & Niemeier, H.M. (In press).  Maintenance: The ultimate goal. In: Apovian, C.M. & Lenders, C., editors.  A Clinical Guide for Management of Overweight and Obese Children and Adults. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Wing, R.R., Niemeier, H.M., & Pinto, A. (In press).  Weight loss in type 2 diabetic patients: Is it worth the effort?  In: LeRoith, D. & Vinik, A., editors.  Controversies in Treating Diabetes: Clinical and Research Aspects.  Totowa, NJ: Humana Press.

Niemeier, H.M., Raynor, H.A., Lloyd-Richardson, E.E., Rogers, M.L., & Wing, R.R. (2006).  Fast food consumption and breakfast skipping: Predictors of weight gain from adolescence to adulthood in a nationally representative sample.  Journal of Adolescent Health, 39, 842-849.

Raynor, H., Niemeier, H.M., & Wing, R. R. (2006).  Reducing variety in snack foods during obesity treatment: A pilot study.  Eating Behaviors, 7, 1-14.