About
I am a Ph.D. student in the Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) and a Childhood Obesity Prevention Transdisciplinary Training (COPT) Fellow at the Pennsylvania State University. I earned my Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 with a University Minor in Nutrition, and worked in Fortune 100 companies and volunteered in socioeconomically-disadvantaged communities prior to coming to Penn State.
At Penn State, I have the privilege to work with Dr. Jennie Noll to research the bio-psycho-social consequences of childhood maltreatment through the Female Growth and Development Study (FGDS). Using this exceedingly rare prospective longitudinal data, I study the mechanistic pathways in the development of obesity in female childhood sexual abuse survivors, focusing on the bio-behavioral role of the stress-induced dysregulation of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. I also apply advanced methodology, including multiple-levels-of-analysis and time-varying effect modeling, to conduct my investigations. The goal of my research is advance a developmentally- and trauma-informed model in the treatment and prevention of obesity and its associated bio-psychosocial comorbidities for individuals who a history of childhood maltreatment and trauma and improve treatment efficacy for non-maltreated individuals who display similar vulnerabilities.
At Penn State, I have the privilege to work with Dr. Jennie Noll to research the bio-psycho-social consequences of childhood maltreatment through the Female Growth and Development Study (FGDS). Using this exceedingly rare prospective longitudinal data, I study the mechanistic pathways in the development of obesity in female childhood sexual abuse survivors, focusing on the bio-behavioral role of the stress-induced dysregulation of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. I also apply advanced methodology, including multiple-levels-of-analysis and time-varying effect modeling, to conduct my investigations. The goal of my research is advance a developmentally- and trauma-informed model in the treatment and prevention of obesity and its associated bio-psychosocial comorbidities for individuals who a history of childhood maltreatment and trauma and improve treatment efficacy for non-maltreated individuals who display similar vulnerabilities.