Current Family Research Scholars

This project seeks to address the research gap by investigating both the obstacles and opportunities associated with the digital media engagement among older adults in two distinct yet comparable contexts: the United States and South Korea. While both countries face rapidly aging populations, they exhibit notable differences in technological infrastructure, digital literacy rates, and cultural perceptions of aging. By examining how elderly populations in these two nations engage with digital media and how these interactions influence their emotional well-being, social integration, and cognitive health, this research will generate comparative insights that can inform policies and interventions aimed at enhancing the quality of life for older adults globally.

All of humanity come “out of Africa” – at least genetically. Yet the foundational role of the “mother continent” is muted in conventional understandings of social justice, which draw their inspiration from European-derived ideas and sources on humanism. The indigenous African concept, Ubu-Ntu, captured the worldview that “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” (a person is a person in, through and because of other people). Translated into English, the hyphenated “alter-native” justice based on its core African humanization principle represents another possibility and this challenges norms drawn from deeply flawed colonial histories about “the “Natives” – and especially “Native women”.

Pregnant persons are one of the groups most vulnerable to changing climate, including exposure to increasingly high levels of ambient heat. The urban heat island (UHI) effect, in which an urban area is warmer than its surroundings due to the built environment, magnifies exposure to ambient heat for an estimated 56% of the global population, who reside in urban areas and often co-occurs with high levels of air pollution and other harmful environmental factors.

Cancer treatments, specifically chemotherapy and radiation n to the head an neck region, cause damage to the chemosensory cells, which include those involved in the perception of taste and smell, Self-reports of taste and smell changes are reported to impact up to 93% and 60%of cancer patients respectively, These changes negatively impact social, psychological and clinical outcomes including dietary intake and overall quality of life, putting patients at a greater risk for malnutrition and poor treatment outcome.

Roughly 85% of women in the United Staes experience at least one pregnancy during their reproductive years. During pregnancy, physiological changes result in increased instability and posture alterations which can result in immediate consequence of increased fall risk during pregnancy and long-term effects of chronic pain and elevated risk factors that contribute to fall risk and joint pain during pregnancy are not well understood, engaging in physical activity during pregnancy has been demonstrated to promote musculoskeletal health potentially reducing fall risk and alleviating joint pain.

Each day we make many decisions and take action to achieve our goals and avoid negative outcomes. The actions we take impact outcomes for ourselves, and outcomes for others around us, with particularly strong impacts on family members. In my lab we work to understand the neurobiology necessary for healthy decision-making; we investigate how that differs across individuals and under different circumstances. In the context of our research, we have found distinct variability in the biological organization of a particular neural circuit necessary for goal-directed decision making called the central noradrenergic system.