In our new Affiliate Highlights series, we are sharing short interviews with members of our community, offering a glimpse into their research, interests, and what inspires their work. This year, we are randomly selecting assistant and associate professors from our Affiliates program.
Each feature includes a few brief questions (nothing too serious!) to help spark connections, highlight new opportunities, and maybe even introduce you to your next collaborator. This month, get to know Manuel Hernandez and Christina Kamis!
Manuel Hernandez | associate professor, health and kinesiology
What are your main research interests?
As the director of the Mobility and Fall Prevention research lab since 2014, research interests have been focused on balance, gait, aging, and movement disorders using tools at the intersection of biomechanics and neuroscience. In particular, my research group has been working on several fronts: the development of multimodal virtual reality testbeds for real-time evaluation of state anxiety in older adults; age-related changes on the cognitive control of balance and gait; and the effects of concurrent aging and neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, on control of mobility.
How do you see your work connecting with others for collaboration?
By nature, my work is collaborative, as it brings together social and behavioral sciences, medicine, psychology, neuroscience, information science, and engineering, among other disciplines by focusing on use of technology to monitor changes in physical and mental health in chronic and degenerative conditions across the lifespan. Outside of work, I am a faculty advisor for the Latinx in Biomechanix organization, which brings together students, faculty, and professionals across movement sciences to foster community and promote cultural awareness of Latinx people in movement science.
Christina Kamis | assistant professor, sociology
What are your main research interests?
My work broadly touches on two main questions: how early life experiences shape mental health trajectories across the life course and how contextual disadvantage more broadly shapes mental and physical health disparities. These questions are, by nature, interdisciplinary, and I greatly benefit from the diverse disciplinary perspectives my current (and hopefully future!) collaborators have provided.
What are you most excited about in your research this year?
This year, I am particularly excited about an ongoing project examining how features of counties and states shaped mental health help-seeking in the form of online screeners throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Our country is facing a mental health crisis, and it’s imperative we focus research on what is driving potential disparities so we can think critically about interventions to improve population well-being.