Ph.D., Florida State University, 2010

I am a feminist scholar specializing in the study of gendered responses to stigma, social devaluation, and social stress more generally, with a particular focus on the health and healthcare experiences of people with disabilities. I am a versatile methodologist with specific training and expertise in survey research and advanced health data analysis, as well as qualitative research methods. 

I regularly teach courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels on statistics; programming and data analytics; the sociology of health, illness and disability; gender and mental health; social psychology; and research methods, including the capstone course for the Health, Society and Populations major. 

I am currently co-editing the Oxford Handbook on the Sociology of Disability, which is the first handbook of its kind in this discipline. I am the deputy editor for two journals - Society and Mental Health and Sociological Perspectives - and serve on the editorial boards of several academic journals including the Journal of Aging and Health, Stigma and Health, and Health Sociology Review. 

I am also highly involved in professional advocacy. I chair the University of Kentucky Disability Accommodations and Compliance Committee, as well as the Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities for the American Sociological Association. I have served as a faculty advisor for several student advocacy groups, including the Invisible Disabilities Alliance and Active Minds.

I study gender differences in stress and health outcomes across the life course, and have published more than 50 research articles on related topics using population-level and clinical data. A long-standing focus of my work is on gender- and disability-related experiences of stigma and discrimination. I also have particular interest in collective trauma or macro-level stressors and mental health, which is reflected in my work on the Great Recession and the 9/11 attacks. Recent projects have investigated pandemic-related stress and stigmas associated with opioid use. At present, and supported by a Switzer Fellowship from the Department of Health and Human Services (NIDILRR), I am studying the long-term impact of the Great Recession on employment trajectories and their health effects among people with disabilities.