About
Parent, youth, and reproductive health information behavior. On topics of public health importance.
I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Population and Public Health (SPPH) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
My primary areas of expertise are the health-related information practices of youth, parents, and families, as well as the ways health care providers and health systems use information in efforts to improve the health of populations.
With research interests clustering around the intersection between information practices and health behavior, I am particularly keen to investigate decision-making about health issues that are influenced by social marginalization and inequity, and the ways information systems can exacerbate or alleviate disparities.
Current projects focus on vaccine confidence and decision making about vaccination, immunization information systems and records, cannabis use decision making in pregnancy and lactation, disinformation in social media support communities, and online communication among young parents.
Background and Training: I hold a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies and an MLIS from the University of British Columbia in Canada, and a BA (Hons) from Oberlin College in the USA. My postdoctoral fellowship took place in the Vaccine Evaluation Center at the British Columbia Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Prior to joining SPPH, I was an Assistant Professor of Health Communication in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst