Chief Medical Officer, Founder

Dr. Cheri Levinson is a full Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Louisville and Director of the Eating Anxiety Treatment (EAT) lab. She is also the Founder and former Clinical Director of the Louisville Center for Eating Disorders, which is the only eating disorder specialty clinic in the state of KY, where she treats patients, and supervises and trains other clinicians and students in evidence-based treatments for eating disorders. Dr. Levinson is also former Vice Chair and co-founder of the KY Eating Disorder Council, which is a state sponsored council charged with improving eating disorder treatment and access to treatment in KY.

Dr. Levinson’s research focuses on building new treatments for eating disorders, primarily using new technologies. To do this work she uses advanced analytics and technologies, such as individual network analysis, ecological momentary assessment, and wearable sensor technologies. Dr. Levinson has published more than 180 peer-reviewed manuscripts and chapters and has been the primary investigator on several national grants and awards, including three active clinical trials tested exposure therapy and personalized treatments for eating disorders. She has received several awards for her work including the 2021 Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award, 2020 American Psychological Association Theo Blau Award, and the Academy for Eating Disorders 2015 Outstanding Scientific Contribution Award.

Dr. Levinson’s clinical works focuses on the treatment of adults, adolescents, and children with eating disorders. She specializes in the treatment of comorbid disorders (eating disorders, OCD and anxiety disorders) using empirically supported cognitive-behavioral techniques. Dr. Levinson has worked in all levels of eating disorder care, including outpatient, partial-hospitalization, residential, and inpatient care.  

Before moving home to Louisville, Dr. Levinson trained at the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence in Eating Disorders (CEED). While at CEED, she trained in cognitive behavioral therapies, dialectical behavior therapy, family based therapy for adolescents with anorexia nervosa, acceptance and commitment therapy, and mindfulness therapies for eating disorders. Dr. Levinson was a post-doctoral fellow at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, where she developed technology based treatments for eating disorders. She completed her clinical internship at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. She received her Master’s and Doctoral degrees in the psychology department at Washington University in St. Louis. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology and history at the University of Kentucky.

Chief Innovative Officer, Founder

Dr. Christina Ralph-Nearman is a Cognitive and Experimental Psychologist, Assistant Research Professor and the Assistant Director of the EAT Lab in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Louisville. She made her home in Louisville after completing her Post-doctoral Research Fellowship where she continued to test eating disorder digital tools that she developed on her evenings of her Ph.D. research. Dr. Ralph-Nearman became a Cognitive and Experimental Psychologist in 2018 (awarded with distinction) in England, where she was honored with the esteemed University of Nottingham Vice-Chancellor’s Ph.D. Scholarship for Research Excellence. Prior, she was awarded academic scholarships for her M.S. in Neuroimaging and Clinical Neuropsychology (awarded with distinction), and her B.S. in Psychology with an additional Substance Abuse Emphasis certification, and Professional Communications minor (graduating summa cum laude). Additionally, she developed evidence-based emotional self-regulation treatments for traumatic brain injury patients for a Clinical Neuropsychologist in Manhattan Beach, California.

Dr. Ralph-Nearman successfully completed two (2022) NIH NBIB Entrepreneurship programs. Her main research focus includes: 1) Developing, testing, and implementing innovative personalized digital tools to implicitly and explicitly detect, assess, prevent, and treat eating disorders; and 2) Using multi-modal and multi-disciplinary techniques to identify cognitive-affective and physiological underlying mechanisms, and illness trajectory of eating disorders. Dr. Ralph-Nearman’s development of ‘Somatomap’ (a multi-platform 2D/3D body image assessment tool) has been recognized by the Academy for Eating Disorders with the ‘Young Investigators Award’ and several AED ‘Early Career Awards’. Additionally, she has received multiple American Psychological Association early career awards, the University of Nottingham’s ‘Highly Commended Teaching Award’, and multiple research travel grants (e.g., Experimental Psychology Society, British Psychological Society, and Laura and John Arnold Foundation) for her work. She has also received multiple awards for her innovations which support both the clinician and the patient, such as the Trailblazer award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (2023) at the University of Louisville. Dr. Ralph-Nearman has two pending patents. Her international collaborations range from Asia, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and the Middle East.

On a personal note, Dr. Ralph-Nearman enjoys life, including laughing with family and friends, traveling, the beach, bonfires, hiking, coffee + deep talks, celebrating others, good food, art, spinning, and volunteering. Her philosophy is to work hard and be kind. She is passionate about mentoring and investing into earlier career researchers and working toward building tools to ultimately extinguish eating disorders.

Chief Executive Officer

Alice Shade is a seasoned executive with nearly 30 years of expertise in business strategy and organization development, particularly in the technology and healthcare sectors. As the Founder and current CEO of 4A Ventures, Alice consults with and manages a team of advisors to support businesses areas of strategy design and implementation, leadership and team development, financial operations, and business development. Among her successes since founding 4A Ventures in 2019 is launching an independent physician practice during Covid-19, helping CEOs position their companies to achieve exceptional growth in revenue and become national leaders in their industries. She has led strategic advisory councils—most recently for Everside Health—bringing forth actionable recommendations to improve the health and wellbeing of both the customers and the patients they serve.

Prior to founding 4A Ventures, Alice spent a decade as Founder and CEO of SentryHealth. Through fundraising and building strategic parternships, Alice led the technology-enabled health management platform firm from idea to expansion across several states, securing funding and strategic partnerships, most notably, Johns Hopkins University and Healthstat.

Alice is a Vistage Chair, leading a diverse group of CEOs and business owners who are looking to make impactful changes and spark significant growth. As Chair, Alice facilitates monthly group meetings and one-on-one coaching to help members establish their visions, ask better questions that lead to true thought innovation and build strong teams, organizations, and communities.

Among her other current roles, Alice serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Louisville, where she works closely with professors and researchers to support their efforts on commercialization and acts as a liaison to connect them with likeminded investors in the community and beyond. During this work, she became part of the founding team of Awaken Digital Health Solutions.

Personal Background

Alice earned a BA in Accounting from Kentucky Wesleyan College, and her Master’s in Health Administration from the University of Kentucky.

As a Kentucky-native and one of 14 children, Alice is committed to supporting the commonwealth’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and its founders and CEOs. She recognizes that growing up as one of 14 helped her develop the valuable people and teamwork skills needed for her entrepreneurial ambition. She attributes learning many of those skills to her father, who co-owned a grocery store chain in Henderson, Kentucky.

As a single mom, Alice loves spending time with her three lively daughters and sharing with them her joy of all things outdoors. She especially enjoys exploring and hiking National Parks, gardening and playing tennis.