BYU employee since: 2015
My job at BYU is… associate professor in the Department of Public Health. I get to teach and do research relating to families and public health. Public health is the best major on campus (I may be biased).
I’m currently working on… several papers relating to how health is passed across generations in families. My research assistants and I have a study of three generations of families. My research assistants and I have a study of three generations of families — we’ve asked young adults, their parents, and their grandparents to fill out a survey on what makes their family healthy and how that affects their health.
My advice to incoming freshmen is… focus on learning all you can, and the good grades will come in the process. If you focus just on the grade, you’ll be miserable.
My advice to graduating seniors is… deep breaths! Keep taking small steps. Maybe you still don’t know what you want to do with your life, but trust God and the doors will open one step at a time.
My favorite spot on campus is… the walking path south of campus because ... I can take a walk in the middle of the day to recharge my mind, listen to birds sing, and watch the scenery change through all the seasons.
I became a BYU fan when… I was born. Or maybe before???
I chose to come to BYU because... I love the balance of teaching and research in my job and that I get to involve students in all of it. I love interacting with the students, and I love that I can always be curious — asking and answering questions through my research.
My go-to comfort food is… warm, homemade bread and anything with chocolate.
One item on my bucket list is… each year, I create a 100-item bucket list for the year. Some of my family created their own100-lists too. Whenever we complete an item on our list, we text a picture of it on our group chat. Some of the things on my 100 list this year include doing a pistol squat (I met that goal in February and I’m very proud of it!), making 45 new recipes (one for each year of my life), going on 24 hikes and reading 12 classics.
