About
I am an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso and a human biologist / biological anthropologist interested in the contribution of social, political, and traumatic stressors to disparities in maternal and child health during the perinatal and early postpartum periods in the United States and Brazil. I completed my PhD in Anthropology from Yale University in 2020 and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2023. I use biosocial approaches to investigate how these factors interact with biological processes to shape patterns of health disparities, particularly among Latina/os influence the risk of adverse pregnancy, postpartum, maternal, and infant health and developmental outcomes. I am interested in research on mechanisms of embodiment and the intergenerational consequences of stress, including epigenetics, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function, inflammation and immunoregulation, the microbiome, and cardiovascular physiology. My research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
Education
Ph.D., Anthropology — Yale University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2020
M.Phil., Anthropology — Yale University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2015
B.S., Anthropology (emph. Human Biology) — University of Anthropology, 2013
B.A., Music (emph. Theory, History, & Criticism) — University of Arizona, 2013