As a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, I was involved in several projects exploring the intersection of families and health. I recently completed dissertation research studying parental responses to receiving an adolescent child’s depressive disorder diagnosis. My research explored what more can be done to encourage family-based treatment for adolescent mental health disorders.
My interests include family process and resilience, parenting, social determinants of health, and applied research. I am particularly interested in parent-based interventions aimed at increasing parental self-efficacy, family adaptation, and resilience when coping with child psychopathology.
As a Research Assistant with the Food Supplement Nutrition Education program, I worked on the following projects:
- Maryland Health and Nutrition Literacy Study: A mixed method research project exploring the nutrition knowledge and behaviors, health status, health literacy, food security, home nutrition environment, and parental feeding practices of low-income adults.
- Text2BHealthy: A pilot text message based intervention focused on parents of elementary school-aged children, where targeted texts are sent to parents about food, nutrition, and physical activity.
- Healthy Cents: A food resource management curriculum written for nutrition and community educators that discusses how families can afford healthy foods and manage their food money efficiently.
