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Alix Timko PhD

Faculty Member

Dr. C. Alix Timko is a faculty member at PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and a clinician-scientist in the Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program at CHOP. She also serves as the faculty lead for PolicyLab's Adolescent Health and Well-being Portfolio. Dr. Timko is an expert in the area of eating behavior in children and adolescents, the use of acceptance-based behavioral therapy in treating eating disorders and in the presentation of disordered eating in boys. 

Dr. Timko is a former National Institutes of Mental Health-funded Scholar in the “Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health” (BIRCWH) program. The goal of this K12 program is to extend her expertise into the area of neuroscience, specifically in behavioral neuroendocrinology and the use of neuroimaging to study sex as a variable in eating disorders. She is focusing on neurocognition, reward circuitry and the roles they play in the development and progression of anorexia nervosa. She is also interested in the role of neuroinflammation in eating disorders. Ultimately, she is striving to understand how malnutrition during this sensitive period impacts brain development, and to identify biomarkers that predict risk or resilience for a protracted course of illness. This research will inform the development of novel, more effective interventions for this population. 

Clinically, Dr. Timko is interested in investigating how best to use Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT) with adolescents. Her work has focused on whether or not this adjunctive outpatient treatment for anorexia can be initiated in the acute medical inpatient setting, whether or not it is best delivered to adolescents or to their parents, and what aspects of CRT are most impactful for change. Dr. Timko also conducts research on the sue of Acceptation and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in the treatment of eating disorders in youth. Her work has used an ACT-informed family treatment and using ACT after standard treatment to help reduce risk of relapse. Through these studies, Dr. Timko will improve both the acute treatment and long-term prognosis of adolescents who suffer with anorexia. 

Dr. Timko received her PhD from Drexel University.