Academic Research
Areas of Expertise:
Trauma, Stress, Health Psychology, COVID-19, Quantitative Methods, and Mindfulness
No time in the modern era has been filled with more stress. The COVID-19 pandemic combined with economic strain, civil strife, political turmoil, and the individual challenges we all face in life has created a compounding crisis that has taxed many people's ability to effectively cope.
I have been researching the effect of stress and trauma on physical and mental health for over 13 years. I use both qualitative and quantitative approaches including focus groups, epidemiological studies, and field experiments. I have particular expertise in how large-scale collective trauma (e.g., COVID-19, terrorist attacks, earthquakes, and hurricanes) and individual-level adversity (e.g., job loss, work stress, divorce, abuse) influence physical and mental health over time.
My work on community-based and stress-reduction interventions (e.g., mindfulness, yoga, nutrition) has helped identify evidence-based practices to help alleviate the harmful effects of exposure to stress and trauma on our physical and mental health.
At the University of California, Los Angeles, I am the Principal Investigator of the REACH (Resilience, Epidemiology, and Community Health) Lab and an Assistant Professor-in-Residence at the Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health in the Department of Community Health Sciences at UCLA. My research is funded by both the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the Department of Defense (DoD).
You can read more about the work of the REACH lab, including a full list of my current projects and publications at: