Bradley Collins

Professor
Doctoral Program Director
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Office
Ritter Annex 946

Biography

Dr. Bradley Collins is a professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) at Temple University's College of Public Health. He recently served for seven years as the department’s founding graduate program director. In that role, he led the development and launch of the PhD program in SBS, facilitated the development and launch of the online master of public health program, and oversaw operations of those programs as well as the preexisting MPH in SBS. In addition, Dr. Collins is the founding director of the Health Behavior Research Clinic (HBRC). For 18 years, the HBRC has maintained a dynamic extramurally-funded research program in cancer control and prevention, maternal and child health, and health behavior promotion in underserved communities, and he has provided clinical services for underserved tobacco smokers in Philadelphia. Prior to coming to Temple University, he was a faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Psychiatry.

Dr. Collins has received over $20 million in extramurally-funded research grants ($18 million as a principal investigator or senior scientist mentor) and over $300,000 in service delivery grants as program director. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and has given over 200 peer-reviewed presentations throughout the U.S., as well as international meetings throughout mainland Europe as well as Cyprus and India. Dr. Collins also serves as an associate editor for the scientific journal Translational Behavioral Medicine and was elected as a fellow in the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Recognition of his research and service contributions in public health include the Philadelphia College of Physicians Public Health Award, Certificate of Commendation from the governor of Pennsylvania, four mentored student research awards, and departmental awards including the Mentor Award for outstanding mentorship of graduate students and junior faculty, and the Graduate Service Award for his accomplishments organizing and implementing new graduate programs in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Dr. Collins has mentored over 45 postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate student research projects and supervised nearly 60 research assistants while at Temple University. He has enjoyed designing and teaching core courses in the MPH and PhD programs and electives in the undergraduate BS in public health program. Through his teaching and mentorship, and as the department's graduate program director, Dr. Collins has encouraged students to explore transdisciplinary frameworks for understanding and addressing current public health priorities in their content areas of interest.

Dr. Collins' training is in clinical health psychology, and he has dedicated his career to improving health in underserved and vulnerable populations. Applying the wide lens of public health, he has maintained research programs in applied community-based research programs covering a range of health promotion intervention studies (substance use, co-occurring tobacco and mood/anxiety disorders, cancer prevention, and maternal and child health)—all focused on reducing health disparities. Recent focal areas have included randomized controlled trials testing multilevel intervention strategies to reduce child tobacco exposure and promote cessation among low-income smokers, and testing a reinforcement-based counseling approach to extend breastfeeding uptake and duration among WIC participants.

Education

  • PhD, Clinical Psychology (Health Psychology minor), Binghamton University (SUNY)
  • MA, Experimental Psychology (Health Psychology minor), University of Hartford
  • BA, Psychology, Wake Forest University

Curriculum Vitae 

Courses Taught

Number

Name

Level

SBS 8001

Research Methods in Public Health

Graduate

SBS 8009

Health Psychology

Graduate

SBS 8112

Creating Novel Interventions in Public Health

Graduate

HRPR 5999

Research Experience in Health Professions

Graduate

Selected Publications