My research examines the production and maintenance of social inequality, with a particular focus on how and why more educated individuals lead longer and healthier lives. Health disparities by educational attainment are large, growing, and crucial to the trends, causes, and consequences of social inequality. Despite the wealth of research establishing the strong associations between education and health, there is much we do not know about why these disparities exist and how we can reduce them. To better understand why more highly educated individuals are healthier,my research considers the social origins of both educational and health inequalities. I use a life course perspective to understand how educational and health disparities develop over time and across developmental life stages.

My current projects include:

• Educational differences in health behaviors across the transition to adulthood
• Socioeconomic disparities in child health and mortality
• Social patterns in adolescent vaping
• Critical analysis of education’s influence on health over the life course