Gary Bennett

Core Faculty

Gary Bennett, PhD

Contact

gary.bennett@duke.edu

Focus Areas
Degrees

PhD, Duke University

MA, Duke University

BA, Morehouse College

Gary G. Bennett is the Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Global Health, and Medicine at Duke University and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. He directs Duke’s Global Digital Health Science Center (Duke Digital Health), which leverages digital health technologies to improve health outcomes in medically vulnerable populations. Dr. Bennett also leads the Duke Obesity Prevention Program and holds an appointment in the Duke Cancer Institute.

Dr. Bennett’s research program designs, tests, and disseminates digital health obesity treatments for primary care settings that serve medically vulnerable populations.  Dr. Bennett developed the interactive obesity treatment approach (iOTA), which has been evaluated in several trials, both domestically and abroad. His recent work has demonstrated the effectiveness of coach-led, digital health weight loss and hypertension control interventions delivered via web, smartphone, and interactive voice response systems. His recent intervention trials in medically vulnerable communities have been the focus of numerous invited addresses for professional and lay audiences alike. He has authored more than 125 scientific papers in the past decade and his research program has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Bennett has served on numerous NIH committees, grant review panels, editorial boards, and guidelines councils. Dr. Bennett is committed to the dissemination of evidence-based treatments; he serves on science advisory and executive boards of several community, professional, and commercial organizations. He also co-founded two digital health startups: Crimson Health Solutions (acquired by Health Dialog in 2007) and Scale Down. Prior to joining Duke in 2009, Dr. Bennett served on the faculties of the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Bennett earned a bachelor's degree at Morehouse College, followed by doctoral studies in clinical health psychology at Duke University, a clinical psychology internship at Duke University Medical Center and postdoctoral studies in social epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

From Scholars@Duke

Scholars@Duke Profile
Blok AC, Drake C, Decosimo K, Zullig LL, Hughes JM, Sperber NR, et al. Adaptations and early adoption of a family caregiver intervention in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System: A multimethod pragmatic approach for national scaling. Health Serv Res. 2024 Dec;59 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):e14360.

Van Houtven CH, Stechuchak KM, Dennis PA, Decosimo K, Whitfield CL, Sperber NR, et al. Is more care recipient time at home also a family caregiver-centered quality of life measure? J Am Geriatr Soc. 2024 Oct;72(10):3098–108.

Van Houtven CH, Coffman CJ, Decosimo K, Grubber JM, Dadolf J, Sullivan C, et al. A stepped wedge cluster randomized trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a multisite family caregiver skills training program. Health Serv Res. 2024 Aug 13;