Meet Our Chair

Dr. Jennifer Romo is a clinical psychologist at Siteman Cancer Center and Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. She provides inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy to those impacted by cancer and has a special interest in existential concerns, caregiver coping, and grief and loss. She is the Director of Psychology Training for practicum students, interns, and residents and is passionate about creating environments where both trainees and supervisors can find their growth edges and feel more confident in delivering exceptional, culturally responsive, person-centered care. Dr. Romo is also a voluntary clinical instructor in the department of Psychiatry at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis. She provides psychotherapy supervision to psychiatry residents and offers didactic instruction on psychotherapy interventions.

Dr. Pallavi “Pallu” Babu is an assistant professor at Rush University Medical Center and licensed clinical psychologist with RUSH MD Anderson Cancer Center in Chicago, Illinois, with specialized training in psycho-oncology and health psychology. She completed her doctoral training at the University of Toledo, pre-doctoral residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and postdoctoral fellowship with the Bone Marrow Transplant and Supportive Oncology teams at Rush. She works in both inpatient and outpatient settings to provide support and promote adjustment for patients and their loved ones across cancer survivorship trajectories, with special interests in the AYA population and clinical program development. Dr. Babu has demonstrated leadership in championing meaningful health psychology service delivery as vital to interdisciplinary care for medically complex patients. Most recently, she has successfully implemented and maintained point-of-care integration with the institution’s Head and Neck Cancer Comprehensive Clinic, working alongside oncologists, surgeons, registered dieticians, speech language pathologists, and physical therapists. She remains committed to innovating approaches to multidisciplinary care to better serve patients and providers.

Dr. Babu deeply values education and training. She is the course director for Rush Supportive Oncology’s Grand rounds. She teaches a variety of interdisciplinary didactics as well as first year medical student communications courses. Notably, Dr. Babu dedicates considerable time to mentor and supervise clinical health psychology externs, residents, and fellows. In supervisory relationships, she takes particular attention to scaffold professional development, foster career sustainability, and enhance trainee personal strengths in provision of evidence-based care.