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Faculty Partners

Christopher Agnew
Psychological Sciences
agnew@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Interpersonal relations – including commitment processes, dissolution processes, and social network interactions and influence; and social psychological dimensions of health behaviors.

Azza Ahmed
Nursing
ahmedah@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Developing and testing interventions that support and improve breastfeeding outcomes among vulnerable populations, specifically preterm infants and low-income mother/infant dyads.

Annabelle Atkin
Human Development and Family Science
aatkin@purdue.edu

Research Interests: Race and racism, Multiracial and Asian American race-related development, racial-ethnic socialization in the family context, racial-ethnic identity, stereotype internalization (e.g., model minority myth), racial discrimination and coping, mental health and well-being, critical racial consciousness development among diverse youth and young adults (i.e., awareness of systemic racism, the belief that one can affect change, and engagement in action to address racial inequities).

Jorge Banda
Health and Kinesiology
bandaj@purdue.edu
Research Interests: 1) Developing, evaluating, and disseminating community-based interventions to decrease sedentary behavior, increase physical activity, and prevent and treat obesity in children and 2) using accelerometers and innovative data analysis strategies to improve estimates of child sleep, sedentary behavior, and physical activity. Dr. Banda’s research uses an interdisciplinary team approach to accomplish these research aims, involving social psychologists, exercise scientists, statisticians, and physicians.

Thomas Berndt
Psychological Sciences
berndt@purdue.edu
Research Interests: The development of friendships during childhood and adolescence, and the effects of friendships on development; the processes and outcomes of peer influence; and moral judgments and reasoning about social relationships.

Arielle Borovsky
Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences
aborovsky@purdue.edu
Research interests: Language development; early markers of risk for language and reading impairments; word learning; predictive processing in real-time language comprehension.

Amanda Case
Educational Studies
amandacase@purdue.edu
Research Interests: How schools, families, and informal learning spaces (e.g., afterschool programs, summer camps) can collaboratively support youth development. In particular, her work examines how ecosystems of support can be recruited to address systemic racism and classism and support the well-being and educational/occupational trajectories of first generation, economically-marginalized, and BIPOC students.

Sharon Christ
Human Development and Family Science/Statistics
slchrist@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Structural equation modeling, longitudinal modeling, mixed effects (multilevel) modeling, complex sample data estimation, adolescent development, child maltreatment, healthy aging, work and health.

Eric Dietz
Purdue Homeland Security
jedietz@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Optimization of emergency response, homeland security and defense, energy security, and engaging veterans in higher education.

Jennifer Dobbs-Oates
Human Development and Family Science
jendo@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Emergent literacy; emergent numeracy; preschool social-emotional development; preschool learning and behavior; and school and home-based interventions.

Nadine Dolby
Curriculum and Instruction
ndolby@purdue.edu

Research Interests: Empathy in education, multicultural and international education, higher education, sustainability, and animals in education.

Janine Duncan
Curriculum and Instruction
/Human Development and Family Science
dunca162@purdue.edu

Research Interests: Family & consumer sciences (FCS)–broad field and education; professional literacy development; foundational perspectives; critical science framework; status of FCS teacher educators–recruitment & retention; IAED in FCS education & teacher education.

Sarah Eason
Human Development and Family Science
season@purdue.edu

Research Interests: Family engagement in early learning; parent-child interactions; mathematics in early childhood; social influences on cognitive development and attitudes towards learning; informal learning environments.

Nancy Edwards
Nursing
edwardsn@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Adult nursing; dementia; neuroprogressive diseases; animal assisted therapy.

Heather Eicher-Miller
Nutrition Science
heicherm@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Identifying health and nutrition disparities among food-insecure and low-resource populations to inform interventions that will improve food insecurity and health in these populations. Diverse approaches are used in the Eicher-Miller laboratory. Large, complex, representative datasets such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey are valuable for discovering associations of diet to health and to determining dietary patterns of intake representative of specified US populations. Community based studies are undertaken to investigate the effects of nutrition education, program, and policy interventions on food security, diet, and overall health. Engaging with communities in participatory research can inform the translation of discovery to maximize intervention impacts.

Jim Elicker
Human Development and Family Science
elickerj@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Early social-emotional development; child care quality; early childhood program evaluation; caregiver-child relationships; birth-to-three professional development.

Karen Foli
Nursing
kfoli@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Mental health, transitions, and challenges faced by non-traditional families (adoptive and kinship) in community settings.

Melissa Franks
Human Development and Family Science
mfranks@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Aging families; marriage and health; health behaviors; and chronic illness management.

Michelle Garrison
Public Health
mmgarris@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Health Disparities, Prevention Science, Intervention and Implementation Science, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Health Systems and Policies

Elizabeth Hoffmann
Sociology
ehoffman@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Law and society; work and organizations; sex and gender; alternative dispute resolution; legal consciousness; workplace ideologies; and emotional labor.

Breanya Hogue
Curriculum and Instruction
bchogue@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Pre-service teacher urban education, communities of practice, children’s literature, culturally proactive pedagogy, and maximizing out of school time through literacy engagement.

Ellen Kossek
Krannert School of Management
Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence
ekossek@purdue.edu
Research Interests: New ways of working, technology and eworking, flexibility, workforce resiliency and sustainability, leadership and organizational change management and workplace interventions, workplace inclusion and talent management of gender and diversity.

Nasreen Lalani
Nursing
lalanin@purdue.edu
Research interests: Aging and palliative care, family caregiving, resilience, and spirituality, healthcare access and equity among the vulnerable and underrepresented groups. She aims to develop her research program in the areas of aging and palliative care, promoting caregiver’s wellness, mental health, and resilience within different community settings.

Xinran Lehto
Hospitality and Tourism Management
xinran@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Family travel; cross-cultural and cross-cohort consumer behavior, decision making, and marketing communication strategies.

Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
Human Development and Family Science
shelley@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Work and family, military families, family stress, job flexibility and marital quality

Kristine Marceau 
Human Development and Family Science
KristineMarceau@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Gene-environment interplay, prenatal experiences, physiological responses to stress, pubertal development, parenting and parent-child relationships, development of behavior problems and substance use.

Maria Marshall
Agricultural Economics
Purdue Institute for Family Business
mimarsha@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Small business development and family business management. Her small and family business research is focused on areas such as the resource exchange between the household and the business, family business management, and marketing. She is particularly focused on the resource exchange between household and business when each system experiences a normative and non-normative shock.

PIFF: The Purdue Initiative for Family Firms (PIFF) provides multi-generational family businesses with research-based business management resources aimed at improving personal leadership performance and driving operational growth. The ambition of PIFF is to prepare family business owners, managers, and stakeholders (including non-owner spouses and future owners) to be effective stewards of their family enterprises.

Monica Miller
Pharmacy Practice
mille355@purdue.edu

Trenton Mize
Sociology
tmize@purdue.edu
Research interests: Quantitative Methodology; Experiments; Social Psychology; Workplace Inequalities; Gender & Sexuality.

Kameron Moding
Human Development and Family Science
kmoding@purdue.edu
Research interests: Infancy and early childhood; the role of individual differences, such as temperament and self-regulation, in promoting health eating and growth in children; the influence of child characteristics on parenting practices that support optimal growth and developmental outcomes; child behavior and parent-child interactions during play and feeding contexts.

Kelsie Muller
Human Development and Family Science
Extension – Health and Human Sciences
kmuller@purdue.edu
Research interests: Purdue Extension Health and Human Sciences provides education to individuals and communities in each of Indiana’s diverse counties. We bring university information to the local level – both in person and online – to help people strengthen relationships, eat smart, improve health, and achieve financial wellness.

Leanne Nieforth
Comparative Pathobiology
lniefort@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Employing rigorous methodology to discover the biopsychosocial effects of human-animal interactions. Understanding how we can partner with animals to create effective interventions for the benefit of both the individuals, the families, and the animals involved.

JoAnn Phillion
Curriculum and Instruction
phillion@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Using narrative inquiry to study multicultural education in diverse school contexts – immigrant and ESL issues, programs that foster parental involvement in schools, and contributions minority teachers make to schools and education.

Germán Posada
Human Development and Family Science
gposada@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Child-mother attachment relationships; secure base phenomenon; attachment representations; caregiving and socialization outcomes; marital relationship and attachment; cross-cultural issues in attachment research.

David Purpura
Human Development and Family Science
purpura@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Preschool mathematics and reading, home numeracy and literacy environment, behavioral and cognitive development, interventions for children at-risk of later mathematics difficulties.

Jeremy Reynolds
Sociology 
jeremyr@purdue.edu 
Research Interests: Work and organizations; work hours and schedules; work and family; stratification/inequality.

Libby Richards
Nursing
earichar@purdue.edu 
Research Interests: Population-based physical activity promotion; the individual, interpersonal, and environmental influences of physical activity; she has developed and evaluated several walking interventions focusing on motivation, self-efficacy and social support.

Felicia Roberts
Brian Lamb School of Communication
froberts@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Verbal and non-verbal practices that construct everyday and institutional life – language development; parent-child interaction; language attitudes; perception of non-standard speakers; and language variation and change.

Cordelia Running
Nutrition Science
crunning@purdue.edu

Research Interests: Familial and child-centered elements of ingestive behavior and population nutrition, and metabolism and obesity.

Ellen Schellhase
Pharmacy Practice
elschell@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Ambulatory care and the Purdue Kenya Program.

Laura Schwab Reese
Public Health
lschwabr@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Inform, develop, and evaluate interventions to reduce intentional and unintentional injuries, including intimate partner violence, suicide, opioid overdose, traffic safety culture, bullying, teen driving, sports injury, and child abuse; particularly primary prevention of violence perpetration.

A.J. Schwichtenberg
Human Development and Family Science
Purdue Autism Research Center
aschwich@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Developmental trajectories in early childhood, at risk development, developmental disabilities (e.g., Autism Spectrum Disorder), sleep health, social-emotional development.

Christie Sennott
Sociology
csennott@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Health, Family, Gender, Life Course, HIV/AIDS, Reproduction, and Motherhood.

Heather Servaty-Seib
Educational Studies
servaty@purdue.edu
Research Interests: The field of thanatology (i.e., the study of death and dying) with particular emphasis on adolescent grief and social support offered to the bereaved.

Rosie Shrout
Human Development and Family Science
shrout@purdue.edu

Research Interests: Romantic relationships, stress, and health across adulthood and later life; dyadic coping and chronic illness management; infidelity and relationship conflict; psychoneuroimmunology, including cardiovascular, immune, and endocrine function; inflammation, gut microbiome, and aging biomarkers; dyadic, biobehavioral, and longitudinal methods.

Vicki Simpson
Nursing
vsimpson@purdue.edu
Research Interests: The impact of health risk appraisals on behavior change.

Susan South
Psychological Sciences
ssouth@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Connections between personality, psychopathology, and relationships. She is particularly interested in how marriage can serve to either buffer against or contribute to the development of mental disorders.

Glenn Sparks
Brian Lamb School of Communication
gsparks@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Effects of mass media; the general impact of electronic media on interpersonal relationships and close connections.

Harry Targ
Political Science
targ@purdue.edu
Research Interests: American politics; American labor; international relations.

Zoe Taylor
Human Development and Family Science
zetaylor@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Risk and resilience processes; mental health and well-being; family functioning and relationships; health disparities in Latino families; stress and coping; child social and emotional competence; positive youth development; single-mother families; diversity and culture.

Patricia Thomas
Sociology
pthomas4@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Social relationships, health, aging and the life course, social position.

Kimberly Updegraff
Human Development and Family Science
kupdegraff@purdue.edu
Research Interests: The role of family dynamics (parent-child, sibling, interrelations among family subsystems) in youth development and wellbeing, with a particular interest in Latinx families.

Amanda Veile
Anthropology
aveile@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Human reproductive and developmental biology using evolutionary and biocultural theoretical perspectives. Since 2000, she has worked as a scientist on indigenous health projects in Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico and Peru.  Her ongoing research projects include 1) Documentation of birthing practices, breastfeeding patterns, and mother-child interactions; 2) Studies of growth, immuno-nutrition, and gut microbiome development in infants and children; and 3) Monitoring community health profiles in geographically isolated populations, to identify novel health challenges associated with globalization and modernization.

Jiayun Xu
Nursing
xu1115@purdue.edu
Research Interests: Chronic disease management and family caregiving across the chronic disease trajectory (diagnosis to the end of life). Specifically, improving health outcomes for unpaid family caregivers who work outside of the home.

Xiang Zhou
Counseling Psychology
Educational Studies
xiangzhou@purdue.edu

Research interests: The intersection of culture and parenting. Specifically, to understand family cultural socialization and parenting motivation (i.e., parenting regulatory focus) as well as culturally adapted parenting interventions with ethnic-racial minority families, particularly Asian/Asian American populations, including immigrant, refugee, and adoptee families.