I recently joined the faculty at the University of Haifa School of Public Health, my Alma Mater. I returned to Haifa after completing a post-doc at the Yale University Prevention Research Center and after being faculty at the University of Texas School of Public Health, as well as a senior scientist (Director) at American Cancer Society’s Economic & Health Policy Research Program. I am currently a tenured Associate Professor conducting research and teaching at the intersection of Epidemiology and Behavioral Economics & Health. I also hold an adjunct Associate Professor appointment at the University of Texas Health School of Public Health. My research examines ways to modify lifestyle behaviors, primarily physical activity, diet, and smoking, as they relate to chronic disease prevention.

This research often takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from the fields of behavioral economics, psychology, and public health, with the goal of better understanding decision making to improve health and welfare. My training is diverse and includes behavioral epidemiology, health service research, health economics, and more recently consumer psychology, and behavioral economics. To date, I have published 76 peer-reviewed publications including in leading journals, such as Nature, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians (Impact factor 292), American Journal of Public Health, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, as well as economic journals (e.g., Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization). This research has been both quantitative (e.g., RCTs, cohort studies) and qualitative (e.g., semi-structured interviews), and has been conducted in a variety of settings including urban communities, schools, primary care clinics. Moreover, I utilize large existing datasets to address important research questions aimed at improving both health and welfare.

With regards to teaching, I come by teaching generationally (grandparents, both parents) and instinctively: that is to say, I love to teach undergraduates and graduates, and have done so for quite some time now, starting out as a teaching assistant during PhD studies at the School of Public Health, University of Haifa. To date, I have extensive experience teaching a wide range of courses such as behavioral economics, community based health assessment, research methods, epidemiology, and evidence based medicine. I have received a teaching excellence award from the University of Texas School of Public Health. I have taught face-to-face classes, online and hybrid courses and Interactive TV (ITV) which provide live broadcasts to various locations. In sum, I cherish opportunities to engage and motivate active minds.