I have been a pediatric nurse since 1995, with experience in acute care, emergency department, quality improvement, nursing education, and research. As a pediatric nurse, family has been the center of my work, in my clinical practice, teaching, and research. The purpose of my research is to ensure that children with chronic conditions and their families will achieve health equity and optimal physical and psychological health and quality of life: with a focus on minoritized communities.
To achieve this purpose my research thus far has had 2 foci: identify the self and family management needs of adolescents with severe obesity; and identify the genetic influences that impact body weight, specifically genes in the melanocortin 4 pathway.
I have held academic appointments at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Nursing in the USA. Currently, I am a fellow at the National Institutes of Health and the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics in Genomic Program Management (Bethesda, MD) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics (Chicago, IL).
I have been an active member of IFNA since 2019 as a member of the Research Committee, and the International Research Sub-collaborative. I have Co-Chaired the Research Sub-Collaborative since 2020. Within the Sub-Collaborative, I have participated in several projects with the Pediatric Research Cluster. In fall of 2021 I helped facilitate a new subgroup cluster focused on policy. I am grateful and honored to serve on the IFNA board alongside my dedicated colleagues from around the world.