Title(s): Assistant Professor
Department: Epidemiology
Office: S431 CPHB
Phone: 319-335-0101

I am a maternal and child health epidemiologist, grounded in social epidemiology with a commitment to improving the health and life outcomes for underserved and at-risk families. My research is focused on understanding the intergenerational effects of maternal adverse childhood events, perinatal mental health and maternal substance use. My long-term goal is to develop and discover interventions to mitigate the adverse intergenerational effects of these conditions and experiences. In 2019, I started the EMPOWER (empowering mothers, providers and others to weigh in as experts in research). The EMPOWER project is a collaborative that includes patients who have had a lived experience of substance use during pregnancy, clinicians, researchers, and community stakeholders. Our mission is to improve care, health outcomes and wellbeing for pregnant women with or a history of substance use and their children through collaborating with patient, community, clinical, and academic stakeholders and co-designing and co-leading research initiatives.