Scholarship
I am passionate about wellness and health promotion, whether teaching about health issues or planning and implementing interventions to positively change health behaviors. I have performed research in the area of cardiovascular disease prevention and worksite health promotion. An avid reader on health topics, I have special interests in weight management, nutrition, physical fitness, chronic disease prevention, and integrative medicine. While working in public and community health, I assisted with various health activities and associations on a local, state, and national level, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Study (BRFSS) and the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Public Health Education (ASTDPHE), along with grant writing and proposals.
Service
I am an advocate of students embracing the act of giving back to their communities, to make them a better place in which to live. I have served the Birmingham community in a variety of ways, such as delivering meals through the Meals on Wheels program and participating in educational mentoring. In my professional experience with governmental health agencies, non-profit community health organizations, businesses, the medical community, and universities, I have given presentations on health topics such as cardiovascular disease prevention, exercise, nutrition/weight management, stress management, and health education planning. At UAB, I serve on the CHHS advisory board.
Personal
Family and friends give my life extra special meaning. I delight in spending time with my husband and my three children. What do we do together? From supporting each other in sports, activities, and other endeavors, to having discussions over dinner or coffee, to spending time with our family friends, we try to make the highest quality of our time together. My hobbies are watching and attending sports and cultural events, traveling, and personal fitness, with my favorite exercises being cardio interval training and body weight strength workouts.
