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Research

Current Research

Border, Immigration, and Environmental Stressors and Maternal Health in Pregnancy in El Paso, TX

How do border- and immgiration-related stressosrs and exposure to environmental pollutants affect maternal health in El Paso, TX? This project combines structured questionnaires with biospecimen collection and pollutant exposure assessment.

Disparities in Maternal Morbidity in El Paso, TX

This project investigates disparities in maternal morbidity during pregnancy in El Paso using eletronic medical records (EMR). Maternal morbidity monitoring is limited in Texas, and many states, and this study uses EMR as a novel method to investigate disparities in these outcomes. Additionally, we use patient residence data to investigate social and environmental drivers of morbidity using geocoded-linked data.

Past Research

Social, Cultural, and Political Stressors, Gestational Physiology, and Maternal Well-being

Funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (F32MD015201)

As a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, I worked on Dr. Molly Fox’s Mother’s Cultural Experiences Study to investigate the impact of social and cultural stressors on maternal well-being and gestational physiology.

Publications:

Kwon D, Fessler DMT, Knorr DA, Wiley KS, Sartori J, Coall DA, and Fox MM. 2025. Of scents and cytokines: Associations between olfactory experience, food aversions, nausea, and early gestational immunomodulation. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 13(1): 269-280. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoaf016

Fox MM, Hassan A, Wiley KS, Kwon D, Knorr DA. 2025. Regulatory T-Cells During Pregnancy Relate to Women’s Own Childhood History of Microbial Exposure. American Journal of Human Biology, 37 (3), e70013. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.70013

Wiley KS, Martinez L, Kwon D, Knorr DA, Epeldegui M, Fox MM. 2025. How concentrations of regulatory B cell subsets relate to regulatory T cells and cytokines in peripheral blood of pregnant women. American Journal of Reproductive Immunology, 93(2): e70027. https://doi.org/10.1111/aji.70027

Wiley KS, Kwon D, Knorr DA, Fox M. 2024. Regulatory T-cell phenotypes in prenatal psychological distress. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 116: 62-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2023.11.033

Kwon D, Knorr DA, Wiley KS, Young S, Fox MM. 2024. Association of pica with cortisol and inflammation among Latina pregnant women. American Journal of Human Biology, e24025. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24025

Wiley KS, Knorr D, Chua C, Garcia S, and Fox M. 2023. Sociopolitical stressors are associated with psychological distress in a cohort of Latina women during early pregnancy. Journal of Community Psychology, 51(7): 3044-3059. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.23065

Fox M, Knorr DA, Kwon D, Wiley KS, and Parrish MH. 2023. How prenatal cortisol levels relate to grandmother-mother relationships among a cohort of Latina women. American Journal of Human Biology, e23883. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23883

Fox M, Wiley KS. 2022. How a pregnant woman’s relationships with her siblings affect her mental health: a prenatal allocare perspective. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 10(1): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoab044

Intergenerational Consequences of Violence, Trauma, and Stress

Funded by the National Science Foundation (BSC-1731773) and Wenner-Gren Foundation (Gr. 9443)

My dissertation research examined the impact of maternal exposure to violence and stress on infant DNA methylation and stress physiology (diurnal cortisol) in São Paulo, Brazil in a cohort of adolescent first-time mothers.

Publications:

Wiley KS, Gouveia G, Euclydes V, Camilo C, Panter-Brick C, Matijasevich A, Ferraro A, Fracolli L, Chiesa A, Miguel E, Polanczyk G, Brentani H. 2025. A preliminary investigation of associations between traumatic events experienced during pregnancy and salivary diurnal cortisol levels of Brazilian adolescent mothers and infants. American Journal of Human Biology, 37: e7000. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.70004

Wiley KS, Camilo C, Gouveia G, Euclydes V, Panter-Brick C, Matijasevich A, Ferraro A, Fracolli L, Chiesa A, Miguel E, Polanczyk G, Brentani H. 2023. Maternal distress, DNA methylation, and fetal programming of stress physiology in Brazilian mother-infant pairs. Developmental Psychobiology, 65 (1): e22352. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22352