Heather E. Webber, PhD

Biography

Heather E. Webber, PhD, is currently an assistant professor at the Center for Neurobehavioral Research on Addiction (CNRA) in the Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She earned her doctorate in psychology with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience at the University of South Florida in 2017. Dr. Webber primarily employs human electrophysiological methods to study the underlying neural mechanisms of motivation, reward and punishment sensitivity, emotional functioning, trauma, and sleep, and how these processes contribute to addiction.

Dr. Webber originally joined the CNRA as a postdoctoral research fellow and soon received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research Award. In 2020 Dr. Webber received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to investigate event-related potential predictors of treatment outcomes in individuals with cocaine use disorder. Currently, she is funded by a NIDA K01 award that aims to identify event-related potential targets for brain stimulation, with the goal of developing new treatments for cocaine and other substance use disorders.

Dr. Webber has had an active research program as junior faculty with over 25 peer-reviewed publications and multiple awards at local entities and national conferences. In addition to her research, Dr. Webber is enthusiastic about training the next generation of scientists and has mentored several visiting undergraduate and medical students since joining the CNRA.