I am a Professor in the Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver. I currently also serve as our program’s Director of Graduate Studies, and previously completed a 3.5-year term as director of our undergraduate programs in Public Health.
Broadly, my research revolves around addressing how networks constrain or promote the diffusion of information and/or diseases through populations. Much of this work has focused on HIV/AIDS among populations in the US and Sub-Saharan Africa. Recently, I have spent more time examining the integrative patterns and processes in problem-focused areas of science that draw from many academic disciplines (e.g., HIV/AIDS, demography, the environment). In addition, I have a primary interest in using social network theory to improve strategies used in the design and implementation of primary data collection projects. Check out my recent book!
Before coming to UCD, I was an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department and affiliate of the Center on Health, Risk and Society at American University, and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Arizona State University, where I was affiliated with the Center for Population Dynamics (sadly, now defunct) and the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity. Before that, I spent two years funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a Health and Society Scholar (also since disbanded) at Columbia University, completed my PhD in the Department of Sociology at Ohio State University, and received my BA (Interdisciplinary Studies) from Virginia Tech. Until I figure out how to add it to the sidebar, you can find me on Mastodon.