Dr. Flaster’s research examines higher education’s role in stratification of life course outcomes.

Dr. Briceno’s research focuses on cognitive health disparities and cognitive measurement across culturally and linguistically diverse older adult populations.

Dr. Hicken studies the social causes and biological mechanisms linking racial group membership to renal and cardiovascular disease inequalities. Her research examines the interrelated roles of racial residential segregation, neighborhood disadvantage, environmental hazards, and racial health inequalities in adult populations, including 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. Sol’s research interests focus on evaluating psychosocial and physical context in racial/ethnic disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) with a focus on the neighborhood. Her clinical training as a rehabilitation psychologist informs her research on the role of context in ADRD disparities.

Dr. Patterson’s research addresses whether and how social norms and family composition influence caregiving behaviors and wellbeing for family members. She has also studied the role of complex families and kinlessness in the lives of older adults.

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. Zhao’s work spans several areas of genomic epidemiology, including gene discovery, gene-environment interaction, epigenomics, transcriptomics, mitochondrial genomics, and risk prediction.