Biography

I am an Associate Professor in Psychology and Health Sciences at Rutgers University—Camden and an associate member of the New Jersey Cancer Institute.  My program of research focuses on sleep as a modifiable behavior that can be targeted to improve health and quality of life outcomes in children and adolescents.  My research has described the bidirectional relationship between pediatric chronic health conditions and sleep in children, adolescents, and young adults with asthma, sickle cell disease, HIV, and cancer.  Currently, my lab is working on promoting sleep and health behaviors that support cancer and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recovery as well as understanding factors that motivate undergraduate students to register as stem cell transplant donors.

I am also a licensed Clinical Psychologist with specialization in Pediatric Psychology. Clinically, I have worked with children, adolescents, and young adults and their families around adjustment to chronic health conditions in The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Cancer Center and behavioral sleep medicine in The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Sleep Center.