RISE Scholars - Tiffany Carson, PhD, MPH

Tiffany Carson, PhD, MPH
University of Alabama at Birmingham
RISE Cohort 4

 

I am an Assistant Professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the UAB School of Medicine. I am also an Associate Scientist in the UAB Nutrition Obesity Research Center, the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center. I am an applied epidemiologist with expertise in the area of psychosocial factors related to obesity such as stress, social support, body image, and quality of life. I have also begun to incorporate physiologic measures (e.g, cortisol, microbiota) into my research to inform a bio-behavioral model for addressing health disparities. I have received funding from an NCI Diversity Supplement and additional pilot grant programs to examine the relationship between stress level, weight, race, and gut microbes of black and white women and men living in the Deep South. I havepublished in the areas of obesity, diet, physical activity, stress and other psychosocial factors related to obesity in black women. My goal is to further optimize evidence-based behavioral weight control programs to achieve effective, efficient, and scalable interventions.

 

My passion for community-based research is a result of my desire to help others. I understood at a very early age that good health and quality of life were important to sustain and grow vibrant communities. Unfortunately, I also observed how many underserved communitiesdisproportionately suffered from disease and illness. As a result, I committed to becoming educated about public health with a focus on reducing health disparities of black women. This is my way of contributing to my community and helping to improve the lives of people that I interact with daily. While I realize that it will take incremental process to eliminate health disparities, I believe that systematic discovery and implementation of evidence-based scientific findings will ultimately lead to improved health for all communities.