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Assistant Professor
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
I am an Assistant Professor of Clinical Nutrition within the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition in the College of Health Professions at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Prior to arriving at UAMS I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the New Balance Foundation Childhood Obesity Prevention Center located within the Department of Endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. My research relates to how modifiable lifestyle factors such as exercise and dietary patterns influence glycemia. My work is relevant to the mechanistic understanding and prevention of chronic diseases including obesity and diabetes. I am especially devoted to understanding alterations within glucose metabolism preceding clinical diagnosis of diabetes. My goal is to use information regarding such alterations to develop focused approaches to improve clinical interventions and refine interpretations of standardized tests to lower patient burden and curb new-onset diabetes trajectories. The pilot protocol presented herein aims to assess feasibility of collecting longitudinal glycemia data throughout pregnancies affected by obesity, but without prevalent diabetes. Nested within an ongoing parent study design, this pilot will collect glycemic patterns during 14-day periods collected once within each trimester in pregnancies undergoing a physical activity intervention compared to those following continued sedentary lifestyles and standard of care.