Administrative Accomplishments
I have been actively involved in giving back to the scientific community since my days as a graduate student, serving as an elected representative on the Graduate Education Committee. As a new faculty member, I co-founded a university-wide junior faculty biomedical interest group to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations. I have maintained an active role in many diverse committees at the University of Cincinnati. I also have a strong commitment to graduate education, having served as co-director of the Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine PhD program for two years, and I continue to serve on the Graduate Education Committee to help steer the direction of the program. Outside of the university, I have served as a member of the AHA BCVS Early Career Committee, and currently serve on the ISHR Mid Career Committee, to help shape programming for these societies’ annual meetings. As outlined below, I have been involved with ASPET since graduate school, where I competed in the cardiovascular division’s best abstract competition. I went on to serve as a member, and then chair, of the ASPET Cardiovascular Division competition for several years. I am also the immediate past Secretary Treasurer of the CVP division, and I spearheaded the implementation of a successful networking bingo game for trainees at the CVP mixer at the annual meeting.
Research Areas
The long-term goals of my research are to increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that drive cardiometabolic diseases. Ongoing projects in the lab are focused on post-transcriptional gene regulation by the RNA binding protein Human antigen R (HuR) in the setting of (1) the pathological progression of left ventricular hypertrophy and cardiac fibrosis leading to heart failure, (2) UCP1-independent thermogenic metabolism in brown adipocytes, and (3) adipose tissue-mediated endocrine effects on cardiac physiology.
ASPET Activities
- Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology
- Secretary/Treasurer, ASPET Cardiovascular Pharmacology Division (2020-2022)
- Cardiovascular Division Competition Committee (2013-Present)
- Organizer and chair, Cardiometabolic Diseases: At the Crossroads of Adipose Tissue and Cardiovascular Health, Experimental Biology (2021)
- Organizer and chair, RNA Binding Proteins in Cardiovascular Disease Symposium, Experimental Biology (2018)
- Chair, Cardiovascular Division Competition Committee (2016-2019)
- Judge, Cardiovascular Pharmacology Division Best Abstract Awards (2012-Present)
- Government Affairs and Science Policy Executive Committee (2016 – 2018)
- ASPET Washington Fellow (2014 -2015)
- Graduate Recruitment and Education Executive Committee (2013-2016)
- Graduate Recruitment and Education Committee Peer Reviewer (Individual and Institutional SURF Awards) (2013-2016)
- ASPET Tagline and Logo Redesign Committee (2013)
- Judge, Integrative Systems, Translational, and Clinical Pharmacology Division Best Abstract Awards (2013)
- Ad hoc reviewer, Molecular Pharmacology (2012-Present)
Other Society Memberships/Activities
- American Physiological Society (APS) (2016-Present)
- International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) (2008-Present)
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2007-Present)
- American Heart Association (AHA) (2006-Present)