About Me

After earning my BA in Neuroscience and Economics from Middlebury College, I completed a Fellowship in Functional Neuroimaging at Duke University in the Huettel Laboratory.

I'm a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh-Carnegie Mellon University Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), where I investigated the effects of chronic stress and mindfulness training interventions on brain structure, function, and human performance. I earned my PhD in Neuroscience in 2015 while in the Health and Human Performance Laboratory (found here), with a concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience from the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint venture of Pitt-CMU, and then completed my MD. After an enjoyable term as a visiting professor at my alma mater, Middlebury College, I'm now back in the clinical world.

I'm currently working as an Emergency Medicine physician, with additional involvement in physician wellness research & side projects in human performance. I frequently speak to various audiences on stress, mindfulness, health & human performance.

My athletic career has taken a meandering path, but I've found a home in gravel cycling in the past couple years and haven't looked back. I'm a "recovering triathlete" (who still jumps into triathlon in distances from sprint to 70.3 when the mood strikes), former road racer at the 5k to half marathon distance, went through a long-distance open water swimming phase completing swims of 5k to 10 miles (and still love the water), and have now trended off-road to the occasional trail run and cycling endurance races (which somehow keep getting longer and longer). I'm excited to have been representing an awesome women's running/triathlon/cycling company as a member of the SOAS Racing Team for the past 4 years.

Current PRs:
5k: 17:32 (2015)
10k: 38:12 (en route during CUCB 10 Miler, 2015)
10 mile: 59:17 (Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, 2015)


You can find me on Twitter and Instagram or send a message to adrienne.taren at gmail.com.