PhD
Professor, School of Nursing
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Prevention and Control
Area of Interest
My empirical research focuses on characterizing cancer-related cognitive impairment, which are changes in cognitive performance that are associated with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In this work, we have evaluated changes in cognitive performance over months and years after diagnosis, as well as examined fluctuations in cognition using intensive longitudinal studies, including information derived from ecological momentary assessment with smartphones. My research has also examined changes in memory and cognitive performance among older adults, including those who are at-risk of late-life dementing disorders.
In addition to my work on cancer and cognitive performance, I have extensive expertise in psychometric studies and in the use of advanced statistical analytic techniques, especially the application of advanced multivariate and multivariable statistical techniques to longitudinal data. This has included multilevel modeling approaches to behavioral and clinical trial data; growth mixture modeling and Latent Class Analysis to identify vulnerable subgroups from patient-reported data; and latent bivariate difference score approaches.
Awards and Honors
- Fellow, Association for Psychological Science, 2011
- Fellow, American Psychological Association, 2004
- The Margret M. Baltes Early Investigator Award in Behavioral and Social Gerontology, Gerontological Society of America, 2004
- Fellow, Gerontological Society of America, 2003
