FEATURED TRAINEE - SITA N. SAWYER PHD

Sita N. Sawyer, PhD, is completing a one-year clinical postdoctoral fellowship in Behavioral Sleep Medicine at the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center. She received her PhD from the University of Arizona.

HOW DID YOU GET INTERESTED IN BSM?

I have always been a health psychologist at heart, studying with Dr. David Sbarra in the Lab of Social Connectedness and Health at the University of Arizona (UA). With Dr. Richard Bootzin’s pervasive influence throughout the psychology department, I was inevitably bit by the BSM bug first by way of our laboratory’s collaboration with the Sleep Research Laboratory, and eventually being a teaching assistant for the undergraduate sleep and sleep disorders class. The bidirectional influences between sleep health and physical/emotional health proved to be an area of health psychology in which I wanted to continue growing.

WHO ARE YOUR BSM MENTORS?

I was fortunate to receive mentorship from the late Dr. Richard Bootzin at the University of Arizona, who served on my comprehensive exam committee and was co-primary investigator on a collaborative research study that spanned three UA laboratories. On internship at the American Lake VA, Dr. Joshua Breitstein served as my primary supervisor on the primary care-mental health rotation, who trained under Dr. Marquisha Lee at the Madigan Army Medical Center Pulmonary and Sleep Clinic. While training under Dr. Fiona Barwick at the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, I’ve seen an only expanding need for BSM education and practice, and hope to see BSM expertise continue to play a growing role in all my professional endeavors.

WHAT IS YOUR DREAM JOB?

I’ve been inspired by Dr. Barwick to utilize my comprehensive and specialized BSM training to increase education around and access to BSM services across specific health populations. My professional goal would be to better serve the sleep health needs of patients with comorbid cancer or chronic pain, or those in settings with a broader reach to those potentially in need of BSM such as primary care clinics or college campuses.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE THINGS TO DO AWAY FROM THE OFFICE?

I enjoy watching college and professional football (both TV and in person), grabbing coffee or exploring new foods with my husband and friends, and sleeping soundly in our amazing king-size bed (along with our cat – when will I take my own clinical advice…)!