The Influence of Social Context on Health

My research centers on health disparities, highlighting that individuals from socially disadvantaged groups often experience poorer mental and physical health compared to those of higher social status. I aim to identify, explain, and mitigate health disparities related to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and sexual orientation. My primary objectives include employing innovative methods to evaluate health disparities across the life course and uncovering the social structural, psychological, behavioral, and physiological mechanisms through which social disadvantage contributes to these disparities. Currently, I serve as a Multiple Principal Investigator on an R01 award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) that investigates racial and ethnic differences in DNA methylation as a potential mechanism for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality disparities. Additionally, I am a Multiple PI on an R21 award from NIMHD, exploring whether second-hand exposure to the Flint Water Crisis during pregnancy has worsened racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes in Michigan.

I completed my doctoral training in the Psychiatric Epidemiology Training Program in the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and was a fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. I am also a former college debater and high school debate coach, which were formative experiences that instilled the value of examining an issue from multiple perspectives and of the importance of engaging with critical scholarship. I am drawn to the field of population health because it is an inherently interdisciplinary enterprise. My research program uses epidemiologic methods to examine the interrelationships between mental and physical health over the lifespan. A core feature of my research is the integration of conceptual and analytical approaches, methods, and models from social science and clinical disciplines with the aim of arriving at a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the ways in which mental and physical health interrelate. The goal of this work is to inform interventions that reflect an integrative approach to health.