Hello! I’m Liz (she/her). I am a social scientist currently working as a Senior Research Associate at the Boston College School of Social Work.

Broadly, my work focuses on the intersections between stigma, violence, and health. I study the ways in which health behaviors and outcomes are shaped by an individual’s social identities, how those identities are socially constructed and (de)valued, and experiences of stigma, discrimination, and violence at multiple levels, from interpersonal to structural. My recent papers have addressed questions like:

• How does violence exposure impact depressive symptoms among South African adolescent boys?
• Do hegemonic masculine norms affect onward HIV disclosure behaviors among South African boys with perinatal HIV?
• Do female survivors of intimate partner violence engage in riskier sex when they experience higher IPV stigma?
• What kinds of experiences do sexual and gender minority adults report having with healthcare providers in the United States?

I use a range of methods for this work, including cross-sectional survey analyses, mixed models (GLMMs, HLMs) with longitudinal and EMA data, structural equation modeling, and qualitative interviews. I typically work on interdisciplinary teams across psychology, public health, epidemiology, medicine, and policy. Similarly, I have experience working with and recruiting from diverse research populations with sensitivity and competency.

I graduated with my PhD in Social Health Psychology from the SPICE Lab at Stony Brook University. During graduate school, I completed an advanced graduate certificate in quantitative methods and elective coursework in grant writing and science communication. I then completed a postdoc in the Program in Public Health at Stony Brook, where I led analyses and manuscript writing for an NIH-funded study on violence victimization as a driver of HIV transmission among South African boys.

Previously, I worked as an intern at Ibis Reproductive Health and as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Mongan Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital. I’m also an alumna of the College of the Holy Cross, where I started my research journey in the Concealable Stigmatized Identities Lab.

Beyond research, I enjoy cross-stitching and taking pictures of my cat, Gloria Estefan-Steinem. I hope to find a full-time position in an industry, nonprofit, or government setting where I can leverage my research and writing skills to improve health outcomes for all.