Postdoctoral Fellows
Kent Cheng
Kent is a social demographer and gerontologist who is interested in life course determinants of health in the United States and the Philippines. His work centers on the health implications of family characteristics and social policy. More specifically, he delves into the role of the family in providing essential safety nets in the face of limited government support. Working under the tutelage of Dr. Alexis Santos in the Pathways program, Kent will be expanding his research scope to include physiological measures of health.
Maria Kurth
Maria’s research focuses on stress and coping processes in adulthood, especially in later life. She is interested in understanding how prior experiences, positive and negative, and accumulated resources influence current stress responses, coping strategies, and well-being. In particular, Maria is interested in two populations: aging Veterans and those residing in rural contexts. As a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Pathways program, she will be working with Dr. Dave Almeida to examine cumulative stress exposure and biological/physiological indicators of well-being across adulthood.
John West
John’s research focuses on how aging affects memory and its neural correlates. In particular, John is interested in using fMRI to shed light on the brain basis of both true and false memory, as well as how healthy aging affects such processes. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Pathways program working with Dr. Nancy Dennis, John will conduct investigations aimed at identifying the cognitive and neural correlates of false memory in old age, as well as investigations testing whether behavioral interventions might effectively mitigate age-related increases in false memory susceptibility.
Dakota Witzel
Dakota’s research interests include better understanding how stressors in daily life have lasting impacts on health and well-being through midlife and old age. She is particularly interested in how relationships help promote or impede the lasting effects of daily stressors. As a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Pathways Program, she will be investigating the lingering effects of daily stressors on emotional and biological mechanisms of long-term health and well-being, as well as identifying the long-term health implications of these effects.
Predoctoral Fellows
Aarti Bhat
Aarti is a PhD candidate in Human Development and Family Studies & Demography. Her research focuses on recessionary impacts, particularly post-recession housing insecurity, among midlife and older adults; how stress around such events can contribute to biological and epigenetic changes among aging adults; and the biopsychosocial pathways by which recession stress is connected to physiological and epigenetic outcomes. As a fellow in the Pathways T32 program, Aarti will be under the mentorship of Dr. David Almeida and Dr. Idan Shalev.
Catherine Carpenter
Catherine is a graduate student in the Psychology program. Her research interests include associative and false memory in healthy aging populations and using fMRI to better understand these processes at a neural level. As a predoctoral fellow in the Pathways program, Catherine will be investigating the intersection between research using human and rodent models of aging and memory and to identify where the fields overlap and where they may diverge.
Rachel Cottle
Rachel’s research focuses on combining the dual approaches of biological and psychosocial sciences to better understand the impact of aging on thermal physiology. As a predoctoral fellow in the Pathways Program, Rachel will be identifying the specific thermal environments that cause an age disparity in the risk of heat-related illness. She will also examine how aging alters perceptions of heat and humidity during heat stress.
Jose Diaz
Jose’s research interests are in understanding how intraindividual differences in sleep can impact cognition and health disparities in aging adults. He is particularly interested in how age-related changes in sleep impact creative cognition, how creative cognition can support healthy aging, and the underlying neuroanatomy and activity associated with creativity. As a predoctoral fellow in the Pathways Program, Jose will be investigating pathways connecting contextual, psychosocial, and behavioral factors; sleep; and health disparities and cognition.
Riki Slayday
Riki is a doctoral student in Human Development and Family Studies working with Dr. Martin Sliwinski and Dr. Christopher Engeland. She is interested in the relationships between sexual health, inflammation, and cognitive health.
Karina Van Bogart
Karina’s research focuses on the biobehavioral investigation of loneliness. Her overarching goal is to better understand why loneliness has such a profound negative impact on overall health and well-being. To this end, she uses innovative measurement and advanced statistical methodologies to help illuminate important contributing factors in the complex relationship between loneliness and health. As a predoctoral fellow in the Pathways Program, she will characterize the self-sustaining nature of loneliness and assess how this relates to healthy aging across adulthood, with a particular focus on how daily life assessment can inform this.
Jingchuan Wu
Jingchuan’s research concentrates on the intersection of technology and health sciences to facilitate better aging outcomes, particularly through promoting physical activity among midlife and older adults. As a fellow in the T32 Aging Grant program under the mentorship of Dr. David Conroy and Dr. Lacy Alexander, Jingchuan will be investigating the role and effectiveness of wearable technology and digital health tools in fostering behavior change. Especially, he will be assessing the impact of self-monitoring and behavioral feedback strategies on daily physical activity levels. His goal is to understand the optimal parameters for promoting wearable adherence and encourage their widespread adoption among the aging population.