Research

I’m a neuro-education researcher.

My research uses affective, cognitive, and social neuroscience to transform how we think about, instruct, and participate in exercise behaviors that promote flexible lifelong participation and multiple dimensions of well-being.

I’ve synthesized empirical and theoretical research from multiple disciplines into a unified framework that scaffolds a practical, actionable, no-cost affective component into the current ‘bipartite’ exercise prescription model (safe and effective) to create a ‘tripartite’ model that is safe, effective, and affective.

My Brain-Body Fitness Framework’s (B-BFF) unique feature is its enactivist lens and ‘bottom-up’ approach to intervening in the physical inactivity pandemic.

Enactivism addresses the complex and inseparable connections among the mind, brain, body, and environment.

Alongside ‘top-down cognitive motivation frameworks that emphasize conscious efforts, my Brain-Body Fitness Framework (B-BFF) also acknowledges pre-cognitive or affective elements that function ‘under the hood’ of consciousness.

These safety ‘brain-body’ designs to regulate our allostasis and homeostasis potentially act as restraining forces for exercise participation because they shape our experiences, memories, emotions, and decisions about involvement in exercise behaviors—behaviors that may feel unnatural as they have been engineered to combat the unintended consequences of the sedentariness of modernity.

Notably, an enactivist lens recognizes the neurological impact of social and environmental/cultural connections on human cognition.

In sum, the B-BFF’s enactivist neuroscience lens illuminates new interventional possibilities for helping people find and participate in sustainable levels of physical activity that promote quality of life.

Music

I’m a singer/songwriter/performer.

My songs are four-minute lyrical snapshots of human emotion enacted in the world—think miniature one-act Broadway vignettes of storytelling in song. If you’re particularly imaginative (yay you!), the best way to listen is with your eyes closed.

Let your mind create a bespoke customized scene as you listen!

Fitness

I’m a healthy living instructor.

I lead various group exercise classes for the Greater Houston YMCA. My passion lies in co-constructing positive body movement experiences and reframing the exercise conversation from “no pain, no gain” to “no joy, no sustainability”! If you’re one of the many people affected by unpleasant past exercise experiences, prescriptions, and pressures, stick around. My research might help you!