Education

Ph.D.: Penn State University (Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Minor in Gerontology), 2005
M.S.: Penn State University (Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Minor in Gerontology), 2002
B.S.: Syracuse University (Department of Psychology), 2000

Research Interests

My research focuses on human development and famlies studies in late life.  The two main areas of interest include daily functioning of the oldest-old (adults over the age of 85), and family caregiving.

Caregiving: Studies include observing daily behavior problems in people with dementia and their impact on the caregiver's well-being. I have also observed patterns of how these daily behavior problems and the caregiver's daily stress appraisals of these behaviors change over time. As a consultant, I have also worked with several programs in the Washington D.C. area that aim to serve the needs of caregivers, and I have empirically evaluated the effectiveness of their services.

Daily Functioning and Disability in the Oldest-old: I collaborate with the Institute for Gerontology at Jonkoping University in Sweden, and have done cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of the NONA datasets (community sample of people aged 86, 90, and 94 residing in Jonkoping) and the OCTO-Twin study (Study of identical and fraternal twins aged 80 and above in Sweden). Primary interests have been to evaluate the Disablement Process model in predicting functional independence and disability in the oldest old, to observe and predict patterns of health and functional decline in this age group, and to test the role of psychosocial variables, such as mastery, well-being, and social support as buffers in the disablement process.

Teaching

FCHD 1500: Lifespan Development
FCHD 3540: Adult Development and Aging
FCHD 4240: Social Gerontology
FCHD 6030: Graduate Research Methods