Stephanie Cook

Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Associate Professor of Biostatistics

Professional overview

Dr. Stephanie Cook's research focuses on understanding the complex relationship between stress, health, and social determinants of health across the lifespan. Her work examines how both structural and individual-level stressors contribute to mental and physical health outcomes, particularly in vulnerable populations. Dr. Cook is particularly interested in how features of close relationships—such as attachment patterns—can either exacerbate or buffer the negative effects of stress on overall well-being.

Her current research explores how daily and momentary experiences of stress are linked to physical health markers (e.g., cortisol, C-reactive protein) and health behaviors (e.g., substance use, sexual risk behaviors). She focuses on how these stressors impact health trajectories over time, particularly among young adults navigating significant life transitions.

Dr. Cook employs advanced longitudinal study designs, including intensive longitudinal methods, to track how changes in stress exposure affect changes in risk behaviors and physical health outcomes.

As the Director of the Attachment and Health Disparities Research Lab (AHDL), Dr. Cook leads a team of undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows in exploring innovative ways to mitigate the impact of stress on health. She has developed an integrated model combining adult attachment theory and stress research to better understand how relational factors influence health outcomes for individuals facing social disadvantage. Her long-term goal is to develop and implement sustainable interventions aimed at reducing the harmful effects of stress on health, with a focus on improving health equity.

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