Angela J. Grippo is an American neuroscientist and health psychologist known for her research on stress, mood disorders, and cardiovascular disease. She is an associate professor of psychology at Northern Illinois University. Grippo received the 2012 American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of health psychology. Her award citation emphasized "her creative contributions in investigating the association between depression and cardiovascular disease in preclinical animal models... [that] advance understanding of the connections among depression, stress, and physical disease in humans." In addition to her award-winning research program, Grippo writes popular articles to help people better understand themselves and their circumstances. Her article "Why Reveal Your Disability or ‘Hidden Identity’ at Work?" encourages people to remain open about their disabilities, such as dyslexia. She embraces the ideas of individuality and self assurance. She and her colleague Joseph Magiano write a column for Psychology Today titled The Wide Wide World of Psychology. Grippo's articles emphasize brain-body interactions, stress, and health issues. Biography Grippo grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois. She received her Bachelors of Science degree from Drake University in 1998. She went to graduate school at University of Iowa where she obtained an MA in 2000, and a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience in 2003, under the supervision of Alan Kim Johnson. Her dissertation used a rodent model to explore neurobiological mechanisms associated with heart disease. After a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at Loyola University Medical Center (2003-2004), Grippo took a second postdoctoral position at the University of Illinois at Chicago (2004-2008). During her second postdoc, Grippo studied neuroendocrine functioning in relation to social behavior in prairie vole. Grippo joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology at Northern Illinois University in 2008. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. She has served as Chair of the Women in Physiology Committee of the American Physiological Society. Research Grippo uses animal models to identify significant associations between stress, mood, and cardiovascular dysregulation. Several of her studies have used rats to explore how mood influences autonomic nervous system activity and immune response, and its potential impact on cardiovascular functioning. In one of her studies with Sprague−Dawley rats, exposure to unpredictable stress led to anhedonia, operationally defined as a reduction in the animal's intake of sucrose without any associated change in its intake of water and used as an indicator of