People

Alison E Hipwell, PhD, PsyD

Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology

Alison Hipwell, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. Her program of research integrates multi-level and multidisciplinary models of development to understand risk and protective mechanisms for mental and physical health in women, mothers and children. Currently active studies focus on health disparities across the peripartum period given that multiply disadvantaged families carry a particularly high burden of health risk, including complications associated with pregnancy. This work focuses on prenatal stress regulation as a potential pathway by which lifetime (preconception) exposure to stress and negative life events leads to health inequities that persist across generations. Other ongoing studies examine the extent to which modifiable factors, such as nutrition, resilience and coping, may buffer the negative effects of stress on cardiovascular risk and infant development among vulnerable Black women with the goal of identifying targets for preventive interventions that will ultimately reduce health disparities.

Lab website: http://www.lifehistorystudies.pitt.edu/