(Sociology, May 2010)
Thesis Title: A ‘Taste’ for Tastes: Social Influence, Food Choice, and Health Behaviors in a Social Network
Committee: Nicholas A. Christakis (chair), Michèle Lamont, and Filiz Garip
Initial Placement: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the University of California, San Francisco & Berkeley (2010-2012); Senior Scientist, the Mongan Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH); Affiliated Faculty at the MGH Center for Child & Adolescent Health, Research and Policy; and Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (2013-2015)
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst as Assistant

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and the UMass Computational Social Science Institute. My research interests include social determinants of health, culture, and social network dynamics. If we better understand how, when, and why people are connected, we can gain insight into how health and culture changes at the individual, interpersonal, and population level over time. Prior to my UMass position, I was on the faculties at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. My post-doctoral training was with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program at UC Berkeley and UCSF. My research is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health (NICHD, NINR, NHLBI), and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.