Anka Vujanovic

Dr. Anka Vujanovic is Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University, and she is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Texas A&M College of Medicine. A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Vujanovic is Director of the Trauma and Stress Studies Center and the First Responder Consortium. She maintains a faculty appointment as Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston. Dr. Vujanovic received a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in clinical psychology from the University of Vermont and completed the pre-doctoral clinical psychology internship program at the Brown University Clinical Psychology Training Consortium. Dr. Vujanovic's research program is focused on understanding the complexity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and some of its most prevalent and high-risk correlates, including substance use disorders (SUD) and suicide risk, through the study of underlying psychological mechanisms relevant to treatment development. Her work is comprised of interrelated lines of inquiry: (1) investigation of psychological and behavioral processes relevant to the etiology and maintenance of PTSD and PTSD/SUD; and (2) development of novel interventions for PTSD and co-occurring conditions that target the psychological mechanisms isolated in more basic research. She has utilized various methodological approaches, including clinical trials, longitudinal methods, ecological momentary assessment, and experimental laboratory paradigms. Her studies have been conducted in academic clinical research centers, first responder departments, medical and mental health clinics, and acute-care psychiatric inpatient hospitals. Dr. Vujanovic's work encompasses populations exposed to diverse types of trauma, including sexual trauma survivors, military veterans, first responders, and human trafficking survivors. She has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and private foundations, and she is currently PI on two NIH-funded multi-site clinical trials. She is Editor-in-Chief (North America) of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Editor of StressPoints, a quarterly newsletter of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. In addition, Dr. Vujanovic currently serves as Associate Editor for Contemporary Clinical Trials, European Journal of Psychotraumatology, Journal of Psychology and AI, and Mindfulness, and she is on the editorial boards of six additional journals. Dr. Vujanovic has authored over 270 publications, including journal articles, books, and book chapters. In 2025, she received the Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Trauma Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association, Division 56 (Trauma Psychology).

- Zegel, M., Derrick, J. L., Gallagher, M. W., Kaysen, D. L., Zvolensky, M. J., & Vujanovic, A. A. (in press). Daily state distress tolerance and alcohol use motivation among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms who endorse hazardous alcohol use. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. - Lebeaut, A., Pedersen, E. R., Francis, D. J., Zvolensky, M. J., & Vujanovic, A. A. (2026). An integrated personalized feedback intervention for community adults with hazardous alcohol use, elevated anxiety sensitivity, and subclinical PTSD symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 196, 104935. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2025.104935 - Vujanovic, A. A., Jarnecke, A. M., Ruiz, F., Hall, K. E., Roberts, K., Saraiya, T. C., & Back, S. E. (2025). Integrated Cognitive Processing Therapy and Relapse Prevent