{"id":104385,"date":"2023-10-26T01:58:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T06:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=104385"},"modified":"2023-10-30T11:49:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T16:49:47","slug":"distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><em>This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored at a ceremony on Nov. 9 for UNMC\u2019s Scientist Laureate, Research Leadership, Distinguished Scientist, New Investigator and Community Service to Research Award recipients.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group callout\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Distinguished Scientist<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The Distinguished Scientist Award \u2014 which is sponsored by the chancellor \u2014 recognizes researchers who have been among the most productive scientists at UNMC during the past five years.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Name:&nbsp;<\/strong>Jennifer Urbano Blackford, PhD<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Title:<\/strong>&nbsp;Hattie B. Munroe Professor and Director of Research, Munroe-Meyer Institute<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Joined UNMC:<\/strong>&nbsp;April 2021<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hometown:<\/strong>&nbsp;Miami, Florida<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Please describe your research focus in three words or less:&nbsp;<\/strong>Anxiety brain circuitry<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why is research important in the world today?&nbsp;<\/strong>Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health disorder in the U.S., and rates are rapidly rising. Anxiety most often emerges in childhood and causes significant impairment across almost every area of life. Anxiety is usually chronic, persisting into adulthood, and significantly increases risk for later depression and substance use disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My research will make a difference because:&nbsp;<\/strong>We still know remarkably little about the neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to anxiety. Increasing our understanding of these mechanisms can lead to identifying the children at greatest risk for developing anxiety and can provide novel targets for preventions and interventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The best advice I\u2019ve ever received is:&nbsp;<\/strong>The key to success in science is the three Ps: be persistent, positive and passionate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Three (or four) things you may not know about me are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I am an avid knitter and reader, mainly detective, dystopian, adventure and fantasy novels.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I left science for eight years and returned in a new field.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I can nap for hours and still fall asleep at night.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I pioneered the investigation of the human bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Blackford is the Hattie B. Munroe Professor and Director of Research for the Munroe-Meyer Institute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":104410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"22590,70280,37929,33031,53526,31939","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-inside-unmc","topic-research","department-munroe-meyer-institute","department-unmc-today-todays-headlines","department-vice-chancellor-research","author_override-unmc-strategic-communications"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr. Blackford is the Hattie B. Munroe Professor and Director of Research for the Munroe-Meyer Institute.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Blackford is the Hattie B. Munroe Professor and Director of Research for the Munroe-Meyer Institute.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-26T06:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-30T16:49:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey Robb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey Robb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeffrey Robb\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c\"},\"headline\":\"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-26T06:58:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-30T16:49:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/\"},\"wordCount\":306,\"commentCount\":8,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/\",\"name\":\"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-26T06:58:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-30T16:49:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"Dr. Blackford is the Hattie B. Munroe Professor and Director of Research for the Munroe-Meyer Institute.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1280,\"caption\":\"Jennifer Blackford, PhD. University of Nebraska Medical Center portrait taken on Wednesday, September 6, 2023.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"Newsroom\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":153,\"caption\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/unmc\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey Robb\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/d09bf41544a3365a46c9077ebb5e35c3\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD","description":"Dr. Blackford is the Hattie B. Munroe Professor and Director of Research for the Munroe-Meyer Institute.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD","og_description":"Dr. Blackford is the Hattie B. Munroe Professor and Director of Research for the Munroe-Meyer Institute.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","article_published_time":"2023-10-26T06:58:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-10-30T16:49:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeffrey Robb","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@unmc","twitter_site":"@unmc","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeffrey Robb","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeffrey Robb","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c"},"headline":"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD","datePublished":"2023-10-26T06:58:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-30T16:49:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/"},"wordCount":306,"commentCount":8,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/","name":"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg","datePublished":"2023-10-26T06:58:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-30T16:49:47+00:00","description":"Dr. Blackford is the Hattie B. Munroe Professor and Director of Research for the Munroe-Meyer Institute.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/JenniferBlackford102023.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"caption":"Jennifer Blackford, PhD. University of Nebraska Medical Center portrait taken on Wednesday, September 6, 2023."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/10\/26\/distinguished-scientist-jennifer-blackford-phd\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Blackford, PhD"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"Newsroom","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization","name":"University of Nebraska Medical Center","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","width":500,"height":153,"caption":"University of Nebraska Medical Center"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","https:\/\/x.com\/unmc","https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c","name":"Jeffrey Robb","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/d09bf41544a3365a46c9077ebb5e35c3\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104385"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104665,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104385\/revisions\/104665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}