Dr. Twardzik’s research focuses on understanding how social and environmental factors, including transportation and neighborhood environment, influence mobility, disability, and health behaviors among older adults.
Dr. Twardzik’s research focuses on understanding how social and environmental factors, including transportation and neighborhood environment, influence mobility, disability, and health behaviors among older adults.
Dr. Westrick is a social epidemiologist specializing in cancer epidemiology, health inequalities research and cognitive and functional outcomes in older adults.
Dr. Duchowny’s research seeks to bridge the social, environmental, and biological determinants of musculoskeletal health and physical functioning in older adults. She is most interested in identifying which aspects of the built and social environment matter most in helping older adults maintain independence and understanding life course sociobiologic mechanisms (e.g., viral infections, mitochondrial function) that drive disparate outcomes in physical disability especially related to neighborhoods.
Dr. Noppert utilizes an integrative, biosocial approach to both understand and ameliorate long-standing health disparities in aging. Her work incorporates life course data on the social environment at the structural-, neighborhood- , and individual-levels with biological data to understand patterns of immune aging and the implications for overall aging-related morbidity and mortality.
Dr. Peterson applies advanced population-level analysis and mixed methods approaches to examine issues of safety and mobility throughout the life course. Her transportation research promotes practical applications supporting mobility-related health and wellbeing for adults, including older adults living with dementia.
Dr. Meier’s research focuses on biosocial approaches to health inequalities and aging. She uses a life course framework to understand the molecular pathways by which social and environmental exposures occurring throughout life get “under the skin” to affect adult and later life health.
Dr. Kobayashi studies the social epidemiology of cognitive aging and health equity among low-income older populations. Her current research focuses on life course determinants of cognitive aging in rural South Africa and the population health implications of improving cancer survival rates in the U.S. She currently serves as an Associate Director of MiCDA’s Faculty Development Core.
Dr. Zivin studies intended and unintended consequences of policies that influence vulnerable populations with mental disorders, including older adults. Her research focuses on predictors and consequences of depression, particularly among vulnerable populations, including the elderly, people with multiple medical comorbidities and people who face barriers to accessing and adhering to depression treatment.
Dr. Zhao’s work spans several areas of genomic epidemiology, including gene discovery, gene-environment interaction, epigenomics, transcriptomics, mitochondrial genomics, and risk prediction.
Dr. Sonnega conducts research on the social contextual determinants of work, health and well-being within a multidisciplinary life course. Her current work examines both health and work with a goal of informing policies that can positively affect both.