Christine St. Laurent is an assistant professor in Kinesiology, and a member of the Center for Personalized Health Monitoring in IALS.
IALS: Hi Christine, thank you for speaking with us today. We have a few questions for you so everyone on campus can get to know you better. How long have you been at UMass Amherst?
CSL: I've been here about 10 years now (five as a graduate student in Kinesiology, four as a postdoc in Psychological Brain Sciences, and one as an assistant professor).
IALS: Where did you grow up?
CSL: I grew up in Manchester, CT and spent 7 years of my early adult life in western Virginia.
IALS: Does the love of science run in your family?
CEB: I do not come from a line of formal scientists or researchers, but I certainly get my inquisitiveness from my father and my passion for translating research to make a difference in the real world from my mother.
IALS: How long have you been teaching?
CSL: I have been teaching on and off since my early graduate years at James Madison University in 2003. I served as an adjunct faculty member at UMass Lowell and Springfield College before starting at UMass.
IALS: What is more stressful, grant proposals, research, or teaching?
CSL: While at this point in my academic career grant proposals carry some additional stress and weight, I think trying to find the right balance between the three is the most challenging for me. But, I’m not holding my breath that I’ll figure that puzzle out!
IALS: Assuming your research is widely successful, how will it impact society?
CSL: My long-term goal is to conduct collaborative research examining the effects of multi-component school-, community-, and policy-based interventions targeting 24-hour behaviors (i.e., sedentary behaviors, physical activity, and sleep) on health and development across childhood and adolescence. I hope that our work will contribute to the knowledge, strategies, and perspectives of parents, caregivers, teachers, youth athletic coaches, and community leaders to support children’s health behaviors, provide additional opportunities and resources to our local community, and influence local and regional policies to promote more movement and better sleep in our youth.
IALS: Who do you admire and why?
CSL: I am in awe of several people and admire many figures in my life for various attributes. When I ask myself about the source of admiration, for me, it has less to do with the accomplishments of these individuals, and more about their character - how they interact and treat others, and their ability to genuinely respect others and be introspective of themselves. I am fortunate to have some wonderful models of this in my life, but my father is probably the person that I admire the most.
IALS: What are your interests when you are not a scientist?
CSL: Although I am interested in so many things, admittedly, my three boys keep things hopping on the home front. However, I love hiking and playing with our three dogs, reading (or more often lately - listening to) books, engaging in many different types of exercise, doing puzzles, and baking. I also enjoy trying to learn the basics of various languages with phone apps, even though my poor memory doesn’t make me the best student!
IALS: Thank you so much Christine!