Overview

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I am a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes, with a joint appointment in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU AMC). For the Colorado Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC), I will serve as the Director of the NORC Enrichment Program and Associate Director of the NORC Energy Balance Assessment (EBA) core. As Associate Director of the NORC EBA core, I oversee operations of the room calorimeter and provides support for free-living energy expenditure assessment using the doubly labeled water method. I have substantial expertise in measuring energy metabolism, physical activity, and sedentary behavior in humans, using whole-room indirect calorimetry, doubly labeled water, and a variety of accelerometry-based physical activity monitors. I can provide unique transdisciplinary training to those interested in studying the metabolic aspects related to sleep and circadian physiology. Because of my experience in conducting clinical studies in humans, I will be able to provide guidance in research, from study design and selection of the most appropriate data collection tools/techniques to data entry and analysis. I have leadership experience with the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI). For more than a decade, I have led the whole room calorimetry program of the CCTSI, and I currently serve as co-chair of the Scientific Advisory and Review Committee.
As Director of the NORC Enrichment Program, I foster learning opportunities (workshops and seminars) for trainees who are members of the NORC. I have extensive experience in mentoring junior scientists and was awarded the Colorado NORC Outstanding Mentor Award in 2018. I have served as a co-mentor or on the mentoring committees of 12 postdoctoral candidates and junior faculty, many of whom have successfully attained independent research funding and all of whom remain active in research through academic appointments or industry. I have served as the primary mentor for 2 pre-doctoral candidates (1 currently in his 3rd year of the PhD program) and 7 post-doctoral fellows. All my former trainees remain active in research-related careers, and several have established their own independent laboratories.
My research is focused on clinical research to study the effects of lifestyle interventions (physical activity, diet, and sleep), obesity, and aging on bioenergetics (energy and substrate metabolism, and physical activity). I have maintained consistent NIH funding since 2001 and have received continuous funding from the NIH as a principal investigator since 2007. I have been studying the effects of ovarian hormones on energy metabolism in women with for more than 10 years. We have demonstrated that suppression of ovarian hormones reduces energy expenditure, and that the replacement of estrogen attenuates this decrease. We have also recently shown that brown fat activity in women is regulated by estrogen.