I am a developmental cognitive neuroscientist whose research focuses on human sleep and its role in learning, brain function, and behavioural health from infancy through new parenthood. As sleep patterns change considerably from infancy through early childhood, one line of my work has examined how sleep's neural features support learning, memory consolidation, and emotion during these key developmental periods, and how parental care and other social factors predict differences in child behaviour and sleep. I have also experimentally analysed neural differences between rested and restricted sleep in early adolescence—another developmental window of substantial change in sleep patterns—and how underlying neurodiversity (e.g., ADHD) impacts young adolescents’ neural and cognitive responses to sleep loss. In another line of research, I explore how perinatal sleep prospectively and concurrently relates to parent emotional responding, and how parent brain connectivity may mediate relations between parent sleep, parent mental health, and parent-infant dyadic outcomes. 

As a newcomer to Aotearoa from the USA, I am excited to collaborate with anyone who would like to incorporate sleep science into their research, teaching, or advocacy. If this is you, please don't hesitate to reach out; I look forward to connecting!