I have been a faculty member in the Department of Health Management and Policy (formerly the Department of Public Health Science) in the College of Health and Human Services at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte since August 2018. I am also a core faculty member with the School of Data Science. My content research interests included data science, obesity, health information-seeking behaviors, social media, mhealth, and health literacy. However, my primary research agenda focuses on the intersection of data mining, social media, and obesity. Originally interested in the online health information-seeking behaviors (HISB), my research interest changed to uncovering hidden health insights (especially regarding obesity) from user-generated social content. My work impacts the field by identifying patterns and interesting relationships that assist the research community with new ideas and theories for further investigation (or hypothesis generating).

When I close my laptop, I enjoy reading, working out for my mental health, traveling to new destinations, and spending intentional time with family members.