Nobles, Roelker Named 2025-26 CRF Family Research Scholars
The CRF chooses faculty members each year for the program based on their promising work in family-related research.
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SPHHS faculty members Carrie Nobles and Sarah Roelker are among the six 2025-26 Family Research Scholars selected by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for Research on Families (CRF).
The CRF chooses faculty members each year for the program based on their promising work in family-related research. The scholars will participate in an intensive year-long interdisciplinary seminar designed to assist faculty in various stages of research, providing the opportunity for faculty and peer mentorship and national expert consultation with the goal of preparing a successful grant proposal. The current group is the twenty-second cohort in the program's history.
Carrie Nobles, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences, will work on a research proposal titled "Exposure to Ambient Heat and Urban Heat Island Effect - Impacts on Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes in Changing Climate." 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. Pregnant persons who are impacted by economic inequalities and/or systematic racism are more likely to reside in areas with a greater UHI effect which may lead to inequities in adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes due to the UHI effect and associated risk factors. Findings from this study will provide foundational evidence for UHI health impacts on climate-vulnerable populations, that is critical for consideration in climate adaptation for the Northeast, including some of the metropolitan areas most highly impacted in the UHI effect.
Sarah Roelker, an assistant professor of kinesiology, is proposing research to examine the effects of physical activity on musculoskeletal health in pregnancy. 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. This study aims to identify the impact of physical activity on dynamic balance, the neuromuscular control of walking, and joint health during pregnancy and postpartum.