I am a social epidemiologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Director of the Center for Social Dynamics and Community Health, Associate Director of the Public Health Dynamics Lab, and affiliate faculty in the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) and Department of Epidemiology. I am Component Director of a NIAAA P60 Center Grant Component that applies a behavioral risk modeling framework within an agent-based modeling platform to help clarify social ecological mechanisms that underlie the etiology of alcohol-related problems in California communities, and develop a select set of scenarios to alter social ecological mechanisms related to drinking contexts and assess their effects on alcohol-related problems. I am also PI of a recently completed NIAAA grants focused on context-specific sexual risks among college students and testing four specific social mechanisms that may link over-concentrations of off-premise alcohol outlets in neighborhood areas to alcohol-related problems (e.g., violence). In addition to my alcohol-focused research, I am interested in the spatial and social patterns of substance use.
2010 | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI | Ph.D., Epidemiology
2005 | University of Washington, Seattle WA | MPH, Epidemiology
2003 | Brown University, Providence RI | Sc.B., Environmental Science
BCHS 3015 | Community Mapping and Introductory Spatial Analysis
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