Department of Sociology
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I am an assistant professor in the sociology department at Oklahoma State University. My research addresses how the social environment influences personal health and well-being. Using a broad array of data (e.g., prospective surveys, time-use diaries, geo-coded mortality records, neuroimaging phenotypes), I examine health-related outcomes among older adults and the general population. My main aim is to draw attention to the importance of social context by exploring the types of communities, social networks, and families within which individuals are embedded. My work has appeared in outlets such as Social Science & Medicine, Sociology of Health & Illness, Journals of Gerontology, Journal of Aging and Health, and Social Networks.
Recent and Upcoming News
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May 27, 2022—My co-authored article titled "What kinds of social networks protect older adults’ health during a pandemic? The tradeoff between preventing infection and promoting mental health?" is now online at Social Networks.
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April 25, 2022—I was featured on the On Topic with IU podcast where I discussed my collaborative research on social networks and cognitive function.
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March 22, 2022—My article titled "Do subjective or objective cognitive measures better predict social network type among older adults?" is now online at Biodemography and Social Biology.
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February 28, 2022—My co-authored article titled "Cognitively stimulating environments and cognitive reserve: the case of personal social networks" is now online at Neurobiology of Aging.
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November 11, 2021—My co-authored article titled "A Latent Variable Approach to Measuring Bridging Social Capital and Examining its Association to Older Adults' Cognitive Health" is now online at Social Neuroscience.
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October 18, 2021—My co-authored article titled "Social Networks and Cognitive Reserve: Network Structure Moderates the Association Between Amygdalar Volume and Cognitive Outcomes" is now online at Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
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September 16, 2021—My article titled "Social Autonomy among Married Men and Women" is now online at Socius.
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September 5, 2021—My co-authored article titled "Why the cognitive 'fountain of youth' may be upstream: Pathways to dementia risk and resilience through social connectedness" is now online at Alzheimer's & Dementia.
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August 9, 2021—I presented a paper titled "Non-spousal support, marital status, and mortality risk" at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting via Zoom.
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August 5, 2021—I gave a talk titled "Social Network Typology and Cognitive Function Among Rural and Urban Older Populations" at the Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging annual meeting via Zoom.
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August 2, 2021—My co-authored article Social Networks and Cognitive Function: An Evaluation of Social Bridging and Bonding Mechanisms is now online at The Gerontologist.
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July 5, 2021—I presented a paper titled "Personal Network Bridging Potential Among Rural and Urban Older Adults" at the Sunbelt Virtual Conference via Zoom.
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June 11, 2021—My article "Non-spousal support, marital status, and mortality risk" is now online at Journal of Aging and Health.
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June 7, 2021—My article "Personal Network Bridging Potential Across Geographic Context" is now online at Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
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April 19, 2021—My article "Social Isolation and Loneliness Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study of US Adults Over 50" is now online at Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
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December 21, 2020—My article "Joint Social Contact and Network Overlap of Spouses Facing Later Adulthood Household Transitions in Switzerland" is now online at Advances in Life Course Research.
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September 9, 2020—My article "Network Recall Among Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments" is now online at Social Networks.
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August 10, 2020—My article "Personal Networks and Mortality in Later Life: Racial and Ethnic Differences" is now online at the Journal of Public Health.
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August 6, 2020—I presented a paper titled "Personal Networks and Cognitive Impairment: Mechanisms of Social Causation and Social Contraction" at the UC Berkeley Virtual Network Symposium via Zoom.
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August 5, 2020—I gave a talk titled "Social Networks and Rural-Urban Cognitive Health Disparities" at the Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging annual meeting via Zoom.
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July 16, 2020—I presented a paper titled "Network Recall Among Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments" at the Sunbelt Virtual Conference via Zoom.
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July 9, 2020—My article "Social Networks and Health in Later Life: A State of the Literature" is now online at Sociology of Health & Illness.
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April 28, 2020—My article "Informal Caregiving and Social Capital: A Social Network Perspective" is now online at Research on Aging.
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February 29, 2020—My proposal to study social networks and rural-urban cognitive health disparities has been funded by the Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging.
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November 20, 2019—My article "Characteristics of Place and the Rural Disadvantage in Deaths from Highly Preventable Causes" is now online at Social Science & Medicine.
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August 1, 2019—I have officially started my new appointment as a research fellow at Indiana University.
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June 19, 2019—I successfully defended my dissertation titled "Caregiving and Personal Networks: Implications for Health and Well-being in Later Life."
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April 11-13, 2019—I presented a paper titled "Disparities in Highly Preventable Deaths by Rurality" (co-authored with Justin Denney) at the Population Association of America annual meeting in Austin, Texas.
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November 22, 2018—My article "Informal Caregiving and Network Turnover Among Older Adults" is now online at the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
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November 2, 2018—I spoke at Washington State University's Sociology Colloquium Series in Pullman, WA.