I am a research assistant professor (2018+) whose interests rest at the intersection of psychiatry and epidemiology. My present work focuses, principally, on leveraging population-level data to answer mechanistic questions pertaining to the transmission and maintenance of psychiatric disorders. I hold a Master’s in research methods from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in psychiatric epidemiology from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IOPPN) at King’s College London – the largest dedicated psychiatric research institute in Europe. Since completion of my PhD, I have been affiliated with the Karolinska Institute, where I have undertaken large-scale epidemiological investigations of familial transmission dynamics in psychiatric populations. The compelling results of these investigations spurred a program of research, with independent funding from the Brain and Behaviour Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, among others.

My current work focuses on leveraging the concentrated risk present in dual-affected families to inform mechanisms of intergenerational risk transmission. This work, while focused on mental health, also extends to questions of social drift and disadvantage in the context of psychiatric disorders, and integrates epidemiological and molecular genetic methods to directly inform and support improved care for families. My interdisciplinary approach brings together the large-scale, longitudinal data and mechanistically-informative analyses needed to delve into the complex risk dynamics inherent to high-risk population, and aims to providing concrete and actionable insights into the etiology of cross-generational burden of psychiatric disorders.

Recently, I have joined the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research in the role of Senior Science Writer. Within MICHR, I will be assisting in developing, and thereafter enacting, a dissemination strategy for work occurring in the context of the Institute's recently-renewed ($71 m) Clinical Translational Science Award.

epidemiology; health equity; population health; transmission dynamics; mental health; familial risk; psychiatric liability; early intervention; anxiety; depression; bipolar disorder; schizophrenia; substance abuse; ADHD; ASD; OCD and related disorders