Professional Title:
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Email:
Research Interests:
I and several collaborators (A. Main, E. Walle, J. Hahn-Holbrook) are conducting a study on health outcomes in Latina adolescent mothers and their children. To conduct this study, we have actively engaged with several community groups in Merced and Fresno that support teen parents. Most recently, we have been working closely with Teen Success and Fresno Barios Unidos. We have planned a series of workshops to share the findings of this study with teen parents and their caregivers/advocates in hopes of reducing health disparities in this population.
My graduate students and I routinely attend community events for parents in the Merced region, where we share research-based advice on a variety of parenting issues. One of the goals of this outreach is to share up-to-date research findings with at-risk populations in the valley in order to reduce disparities.
Along with other colleagues in Developmental Psychology, I organize the UC Merced Annual Symposium on Child and Family, which shares recent research advances with local educators and childcare providers in an effort to translate research findings into practice. Disparities in educational and health outcomes amongst our local population are frequent topics of this symposium.
