Research Areas
Life Course, Aging, Later-life Cognitive Functioning and Dementia
Biography
After completing a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005, I joined the faculty in the Sociology department at Brigham Young University. I have taught Introduction to Sociology, and courses focused on aging, family, data management, and applied statistics. Much of my current research focuses on cognitive functioning in adulthood and later-life. I manage a long-term panel study that began in 1966 with high school juniors and seniors in Washington State, where we are examining whether early-, mid-, and late-life social contexts trigger genetic propensities for cognitive decline and dementia.