Biography
Dr. Sephton’s research has refined and tested scientific theories in three areas: mechanisms of mindfulness’ effects on clinical health outcomes, circadian disruption as a tumor promotor, and human-animal interaction as an ameliorative psychological factor.
She received her BS from the University of California at Davis in 1985. She served in the Cape Town South Africa LDS Mission from 1985-87. She received her MS in Human Physiology & Anatomy from Brigham Young University in 1989, and a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from BYU in 1995. She went on to Stanford University as an NIH-funded postdoctoral research fellow from 1995 to 1999, a mentee of Dr. David Spiegel in the Department of Psychiatry where she focused on psycho-oncology and psychoneuroimmunology among cancer patients. From 1999 to 2005, she held a joint position funded by the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center and their School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. There she became committed to translational mindfulness research: She led a research group along with a Clinical Psychologist collaborator, Dr. Paul Salmon, that confirmed the efficacy of mindfulness meditation for clinical symptom reduction in randomized controlled trials among 91 fibromyalgia patients and 18 Parkinson’s disease patient/caregiver dyads. In 2005, she transitioned to a position as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Louisville. She joined the faculty at BYU in the Department of Psychology in July 2021.