Our team

A man in a navy blue suit, white shirt, and navy tie, wearing black glasses, standing in front of a wooden bookshelf filled with books.

Founding director

Alfred Saatchi, PhD, RN, PCCN

Babak (Alfred) Saatchi is the founding director of the Emotional Health Lab (EHL) and Assistant Professor of Nursing at San José State University. He earned his PhD in Nursing Science from University of California, Irvine, where his dissertation project examined trait and state irritability and its impact on the functioning of college-attending young adults. With a background in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing, Dr. Saatchi’s research integrates biobehavioral approaches, digital health, and mindfulness-based strategies. He has advanced training in salivary bioscience, structural equation modeling, and intensive longitudinal data analysis, and has published widely on irritability and emotional health in young adults.