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Research

My research asks how alcohol use, place, and social disadvantage shape chronic disease and mortality — and how modern statistical and machine-learning methods can sharpen those answers for policy.

In plain language
I study who drinks, where, and why — and how drinking, neighborhoods, and social disadvantage add up to real differences in heart health and lifespan. I use large national health surveys and machine learning to turn those patterns into evidence clinicians and policymakers can act on.
Research at a glance

A body map of my work: the behaviors I study as drivers, and the health outcomes I've published on — with regions I plan to reach as the work grows toward whole-body effects. Click a region.

Drivers I study Alcohol & binge drinking Neighborhood / SDOH Historical redlining Smoking
Human body — map of health outcomes I study
Published / active    Planned
Themes

Alcohol epidemiology across the life course

Drinking trajectories from adolescence into midlife and their links to hypertension, cardiovascular risk, and mortality — using NHIS, BRFSS, Add Health, and the Millennium Cohort Study.

Social determinants & place

How neighborhood cohesion, length of residence, and historical redlining pattern health and health behaviors — and how those patterns differ by race, ethnicity, and sex.

Machine learning for population health

Predictive models for cognition and cardiovascular risk in early midlife, and reproducible, open pipelines for harmonizing large public-health surveys.

Current funding
AI Plus Institute Agentic AI Seed Grant — PI. Agentic AI for harmonizing BRFSS data.2026
UAlbany Bridge Funding (SRP) — PI, $15,000. Alcohol trajectories and cardiovascular risk.2026
SUNY AI Platform Award — PI, $100,000. ML prediction of cardiovascular risk in early midlife.2025–26
Recently submitted
R21 (NIMH) — Mental distress and alcohol use in U.S. adults. PI.2026
R21 (NIEHS) — Atmospheric brown carbon and population health in New York State. Co-PI.2026
HEI RFA 26-1 — Avoided health burden of traffic VOC and particle reductions. PI, $500,000, 3-year.2026

A complete record of funded, submitted, and in-preparation grants is in my CV.

Prospective students & collaborators
I welcome inquiries from students and collaborators interested in alcohol epidemiology, social determinants of health, and applied machine learning.
Get in touch