Interesting, that's sort of my area, only I'm interested in mindfulness and emotion regulation, including BPD and DBT topics.
Good thing you're not applying right now, or we'd be competing for schools! You wouldn't consider working with Dr. Linehan? She is seriously one of the top in the field of emotion regulation.
Given your interests, I think that University of North Dakota (I'm thinking you're interested in the same person I'm thinking of) would be great for you.
Warning about University of Georgia--if you're interested in Dr. Fischer, she isn't currently doing any mindfulness-related projects, or so she told me when I spoke to her at a conference.
Anyway, Anthony Ahrens at American University does work in fear of emotion, which is very related. Clara Cheng at the same school also does work in emotion regulation. Right now Timothy Trull at the University of Missouri Columbia is looking at experiential avoidance, though his project involves DBT so that might no interest you.
Finally, there's a professor at UW Madison who looks at emotion and its regulation from a more neurological perspective. That could be a good option, possibly.