I earned my PhD in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky. My research interests include gerontology, agriculture and tobacco production, Native Americans, development, and poverty. As a graduate student, I was Research Assistant with the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging on a three year ethnographic research project of family decision making in nursing homes in Kentucky. While working on this project, I researched social networks of nursing home residents for an MA thesis. I also conducted research in Morocco in North Africa on aging in rural and urban areas, a topic I continue to pursue. From 1996 to 2000, I worked at Wake Forest University School of Medicine/Section on Epidemiology, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I lived full-time in a large agricultural county where I conducted ethnographic research with European-American, African-American, and Lumbee Native American elders. During this time, I conducted my dissertation research on aging and agricultural practices of farmers and became interested in understanding tobacco production. I joined the faculty of the UK Department of Anthropology in 2005.
Featured Project
Since 2006, I have worked with the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government and the Kentucky Department of Transportation on environmental justice mitigation for a major road project, the Newtown Pike Extension. I completed a social needs assessment in 2006 and am currently conducting a final evaluation of the impact of the road and neighborhood development.
Research Interests
- Cross-cultural research on aging
- Methods in aging research
- Ageism
- Successful aging
- Aging and housing
- Aging and transportation
- Aging and work
- Environmental justice