Biography
I received my B.S. in Nutritional Sciences from Cornell University in 1991 and completed a dietetic internship at Emory University in Atlanta, GA in 1992. I started my clinical career practicing as a registered dietitian focusing on the nutritional care of oncology, general medicine, and geriatric patient populations in the acute and long-term care settings. I furthered my clinical training at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, graduating in 2001 with an M.D. degree. Since that time, I have primarily pursued a career in teaching and research. I have taught histology and neuroanatomy at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Applied Anatomy and Physiology I and II in the Post-Baccalaureate program at Cornell and Nutrition and Disease at the undergraduate level at Cornell.
My research career started in the area of AMP-activated-kinase investigating the impact of alterations in AMPK activity in skeletal muscle on glycogen metabolism and exercise capacity. Although working at the cellular and murine model level intrigued me, I felt too removed from the patient population and moved to human based research. Maintaining a strong interest in geriatrics, I conducted research in the area of health care decision-making in the oldest-old at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Care Policy and Clinical Practice. Through this qualitative research, I observed that older adults desire maintenance of quality of life over quantity of life. I then completed an NIH T32 Post-doctoral Fellowship within the Geisel School of Medicine focusing my work in two areas (1) sarcopenia and obesity in older adults and the impact on functional status and (2) healthy eating in those with obesity and serious mental illness.
At Cornell, I have continued my research in the area of geriatrics/older adults, expanded my work in the area of disordered eating behaviors, and initiated novel research in the area of social media, technology and nutrition. Through community based participatory research, I study the use of technology to improve successful aging-in-place in rural communities in New York. Considering the contribution of obesity and sarcopenia to reduced functioning in older adults, I investigate interventions that improve health behaviors in young and middle-aged adults with the aim of preventing late life medical and functional disability. This work includes study of the Body Positive Cornell program, a peer delivered program to reduce disordered eating, and the Weigh2Go study for promotion of weight maintenance in early and middle adulthood. Technology provides a means for communicating and experiencing eating and nutrition in novel ways to a diverse audience of all ages. In this area, my lab focuses on describing food and eating related communications on social media, exploring their association with dietary intake and eating behaviors, and the use of video chat to improve dietary intake.