As a Health Psychologist with a minor in Human Development I have long focused on the intersection between development across the life span and managing illness or promoting health. As Assistant Professor at the University of Utah in the Division of Geriatrics, the Salt Lake City VA Health Care System, Geriatric Research and Clinical Center (GRECC), Informatics Decision Enhancement and Surveillance (IDEAS) Center, and Department of Psychology my research is focused communication and relational factors associated with shared decision making and patient centered care, particularly in aging populations, clinical reasoning, and medical education. My research objective is to understand the goals and personal experiences of geriatric patients and how clinicians obtain and use that information to encourage active patient involvement in shared decision making and to deliver patient centered care for their geriatric patients. I have funding from Veterans Health Affairs (VHA) Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D), and VHA Office of Rural Health (ORH) as Principal Investigator currently.
