Stephanie Cook

Dr. Stephanie Cook
Stephanie H Cook
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Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Assistant Professor of Biostatistics

Professional overview

Dr. Stephanie Cook’s overarching research focus is to understand how structural- and individual-level minority stressors contribute to mental health, physical health, and health behaviors across the life span. Further, she seeks to understand how features of close relationships can exacerbate or buffer the negative effects of minority stress on health. Her work primarily focuses on young adults transitioning to adulthood who are at the intersection of racial/ethnic and sexual orientation status. In addition, much of her current work examines the links between minority stress (i.e., daily experiences of discrimination) and biological markers of stress (e.g. cortisol and c-reactive protein).

Dr. Cook’s substantive methodological and statistical focus is in the development and application of longitudinal study designs (i.e., intensive longitudinal designs) for determining the ways in which dynamic changes in features of minority stress (e.g., daily and momentary discrimination events) are associated with changes in risk behaviors and physical health (e.g., sexual risk and substance use, pre-clinical cardiovascular disease, and biological stress) among racial/ethnic and/or sexual minority young adults. 

Dr. Cook is the Director of the Attachment and Health Disparities Research Lab (AHDL) which is currently made up of about 20 undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellows. She developed an integrated theory of adult attachment (the Integrated Attachment and Sexual Minority Stress Model [IASMS]; i.e., the development, or lack, of strong socio-emotional bonds) and minority stress (i.e., social stress experienced by individuals in minority social groups) as a means to better understand and address the health needs of disadvantaged youth transitioning to adulthood. Dr. Cook and her team’s long-term goal is to continue creating, implementing, and refining sustainable interventions to reduce the influence of stress on health utilizing innovative methodologies.

Current Projects

  • GeoSENSE: Geospatial Study on Intersectionality, Discrimination, and Cardiometabolic Health Behaviors Among Young Sexual and Gender Minorities
  • Identifying Physiological and Behavioral Mechanisms Linking Discrimination and Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease among Racially Diverse Young Sexual Minority Men
  • Minority Stress, Substance Use, and Pre-Clinical Cardiovascular Risk among Sexual Minority Men: Understanding the Protective Features of Social Support
  • Optimizing a Daily Mindfulness Intervention to Reduce Stress from Discrimination among Sexual and Gender Minorities of Color
  • Race modifies the association between post-traumatic stress disorder and cardiovascular risk in large US population-based study

Teaching

Social and Behavioral Sciences Department

  • Global Issues in Social and Behavioral Health
  • Research Methods in Public Health

Biostatistics Department

  • Longitudinal Analysis of Public Health Data
  • Regression I: Regression Analysis and Multivariate Modeling
  • Regression II: Categorical Data Analysis

Education

BA, Psychology and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
MPH, Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY
DrPH, Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY

Honors and awards

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Summer Institute Fellowship on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials Fellowship (2023)
New York University Faculty Fellow in Residence, New York University (2023)
New York University James Weldon Johnson Professor (2023)
NIH Loan Repayment Program Award, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (2023)
Outstanding Research Mentor, The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, The University of Michigan (2022)
New York University Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Award (2022)
Loan Repayment Program, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (2021)
BioData Catalyst Fellowship, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) (2021)
Diverse Magazine Emerging Scholar: Issues In Higher Education Publication, (2021)
Program to Increase Diversity in Cardiovascular Health Related Research (PRIDE) Fellowship (2020)
American Psychosomatic Society (APS) Diversity Award (2020)
National Institute of Minority Health Disparities Loan Repayment Award (2018)
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research Scholarship, The University of Michigan (2018)
Robert Wood Johnson Fellow (RWJF) New Connections Sponsored Scholar (2018)
HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute (RETI) Award (2017)
Robert Wood Johnson Fellow (RWJF) New Connections Sponsored Scholar (2017)
Matilda White Riley Distinguished Early Stage Investigator Award, National Institutes of Health (Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences) (2016)
Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow Award, The University of Michigan (2015)
American Psychological Association Smoking Dissemination Award (2015)
Poster Award, Excellence in Innovation and Advanced Research in the Field of Sexual Health, American Public Health Association (2014)
Excellence in Abstract Submission, American Public Health Association (2011)

Areas of research and study

Biostatistics
Cardiovascular Disease
Intersectionality Theory
Longitudinal Methods
Minority Health
Minority Stress
Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST)
Physiological Stress
Social Behaviors

Contact

sc5810@nyu.edu 708 Broadway New York, NY, 10003