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.
Since coming to Cincinnati Children's 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.
PhD: University of Iowa College of Public Health Department of Epidemiology, Iowa City, IA.
Postdoctoral Fellowship: Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH.
Assessment of US Federal Funding of Incarceration-Related Research, 1985 to 2022. JAMA network open. 2023; 6:e230803.
Naloxone Education and Receipt of Kit During the Perinatal Period. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2023; 228:s208-s209.
Associations Between Infant Sleep and Postpartum Maternal-Infant Bonding Among Mothers with Opioid Use Disorder. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2023; 228:s154-s155.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and birth outcomes in California: a quasi-experimental study. BMC Public Health. 2022; 22:1449.
A Quality Improvement Network for Interdisciplinary Training in Developmental Disabilities. Pediatrics. 2022; 150:e2022058236.
Racial Inequities in Breastfeeding Counseling Among Pregnant People Who Use Cannabis. Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2022; 140:878-881.
Factors Associated With Bullying Victimization and Bullying Perpetration in Children and Adolescents With ADHD: 2016 to 2017 National Survey of Children's Health. Journal of Attention Disorders. 2022; 26:1535-1548.
Breastfeeding Initiation and Continuation Among Women with Substance and Tobacco Use During Pregnancy: Findings from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System 2016-2018. Breastfeeding Medicine. 2022; 17:544-549.
Association Between Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences and Neonatal SCG5 DNA Methylation-Effect Modification by Prenatal Home Visiting. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2022; 191:636-645.
Home Visiting as an Equitable Intervention for Perinatal Depression: A Scoping Review. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2022; 13:826673.