Generally, my research examines the role that positive emotions and other positive factors play in influencing stress and health outcomes. I am especially interested in exactly how these factors “get under the skin” to influence our well-being and protect us against the harmful effects of stress. Pathways that I have examined include physiological processes such as stress hormone reactivity, cardiovascular response, immune system change, as well as health behaviors like sleeping, exercise, and other leisure activities. I also do research on the role of these positive psychosocial factors in buffering the detrimental effects of stress. For example, I am interested in whether happiness is associated with an improved ability to handle stress, both from a psychological and a physiological standpoint. I am also very interested in using relationship and emotion markers outside of self-report as predictors of health. For example, computerized word encoding of writing, or positive facial emotion expression (e.g., smiling) as alternative, unobtrusive methods of understanding individual differences.

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I received my B.Sc. in Biopsychology at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, Canada (ranked the #1 Undergraduate University in Canada more than any other school). Next, I completed my MA and Ph.D. in Social and Health Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. Finally, I completed post doctoral training in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

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I don't really have much spare time these days since I have a young child in the middle of a pandemic, but in my theoretical free time, I like to climb public stairs and take my canine collaborator to the gorgeous So Cal beaches.