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Overview


Education
After a BSc in Psychology and an MA in Social Research at the University of Leeds (UK), I moved to Glasgow, Scotland, where I obtained and completed a competitive, fully-funded doctoral fellowship at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow. My PhD research focused on socioeconomic inequalities in smoking, drinking and psychiatric distress over the transition from youth to adulthood.

Experience and Accomplishments
I was at the the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow for over 15 years, where I gained experience with a wide range of UK and US longitudinal population surveys and developed expertise in longitudinal data analysis and causal inference. My research has focused on how inequalities in health and behaviors develop over the life course. I was PI on an ESRC grant looking at the impact of UK smoke-free public places legislation on youth smoking uptake, and have been Co-I on a number of externally-funded projects. After the COVID-19 pandemic started, I became lead analyst for the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society) on the UK National Core Studies: Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing programme. This was an initiative to draw together data from the UK's rich range of population-based longitudinal studies, and coordinate analyses answering priority questions about how the pandemic and associated mitigation policies were impacting on inequalities in health.

Current Role
In November 2022 I took up a role as a Research Scientist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Duke University School of Medicine. My research currently focuses on racial inequalities in gynecological healthcare, though I remain interested broadly in causal inference and in understanding how inequalities in health develop over the life course.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Recent Publications


Ecological momentary assessment of cigarette smoking behavior and pain intensity among individuals with chronic back pain who smoke.

Journal Article J Pain · March 2025 Chronic pain affects ∼20% of the adult population and is associated with smoking. Smoking and pain worsen each other in the long term, but short-term temporal associations between smoking and pain throughout the day are unclear. Understanding these relatio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Vaping and socioeconomic inequalities in smoking cessation and relapse: a longitudinal analysis of the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

Journal Article Tobacco control · November 2024 BackgroundSmoking is a key cause of socioeconomic health inequalities. Vaping is considered less harmful than smoking and has become a popular smoking cessation aid, and therefore has potential to reduce inequalities in smoking.MethodsWe ... Full text Cite

Inequalities in children's mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

Journal Article Journal of epidemiology and community health · December 2023 BackgroundThere are concerns that child mental health inequalities may have widened during the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated whether child mental health inequalities changed in 2020/2021 compared with prepandemic.MethodsWe analysed 1 ... Full text Cite
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