Dr. Marianne Matthias is Zuckerman Family Endowed Chair in Prevention and Lifestyle Medicine in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH) at the University of Arizona and Professor of Health Promotion Sciences in MEZCOPH. She is a health services researcher who focuses on patient engagement in healthcare, with particular interests in treatment decision-making in chronic pain care and behavioral and lifestyle interventions to improve chronic pain care and advance health equity. She has specific methodological expertise in qualitative and mixed methods, and clinical trials.

Dr. Matthias recently completed a VA-funded study as principal investigator of a randomized controlled trial focused on patient activation and communication for Black Veterans with chronic pain and a VA-funded study examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on opioid prescribing and Veterans’ use of and access to nonpharmacological pain management. Currently she leads a VA-funded clinical trial of an intervention to increase the use of evidence-based behavioral and lifestyle approaches to chronic pain treatment and a study funded by NIH’s HEAL Initiative focused on fostering patient engagement and shared decision-making for Black patients with chronic pain and comorbid depression. 

In addition, Dr. Matthias has been a co-investigator on a number of other funded studies, including a study funded by NIH’s HEAL Initiative testing a mindfulness-based intervention to improve pain management and reduce opioid use among rural Veterans, a VA-funded study comparing caregiver-delivered and therapist-delivered massage for chronic neck pain, a VA-funded study promoting social connectedness for Veterans, and a PCORI-funded study testing a patient navigation intervention for Veterans with chronic low-back pain. She serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of General Internal Medicine and Pain Medicine and has published over 120 scholarly articles.