Why did you choose graduate school at IUPUI?
I chose to come here because of the high caliber of training in the clinical psychology doctoral program. I also wanted to work with Dr. Catherine Mosher in her behavioral oncology laboratory, and train under several experts in cancer-related cognitive impairment.
What has been your favorite academic accomplishment since you’ve been here?
I am most proud of being awarded an F31 pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Cancer Institute to support my dissertation.
What do you enjoy most about life in Indianapolis?
Close proximity to nature (e.g., Eagle Creek Park)
Please provide some details about your work/research as a graduate student and/or any activities you are involved in.
Broadly, my research is on behavioral symptom management for cancer survivors. More specifically, I am interested in management of cancer-related cognitive impairment through increasing physical activity. However, the cognitive problems faced by cancer survivors might interfere with their ability to organize themselves to be active. Engaging in regular physical activity is difficult enough for people without cancer and cognitive problems, so you can imagine how difficult it might be to remember and motivate yourself to be active if you had these problems as well. Therefore, my dissertation is focused on examining the effect of lowered executive functioning (i.e., higher-order cognitive functioning) on physical activity in older cancer survivors. If I can show that lower executive functioning interferes with older cancer survivors’ physical activity, then my future research could focus on developing ways to help survivors with cognitive problems become and remain physically active.