Lisa Christian is a clinical health psychologist and professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health and a member of the Institute for Brain, Behavior, and Immunology at OSUMC where she has been a faculty member since 2008. Dr. Christian’s research has been funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). She directs the Stress, Behavioral Immunology, and Health Lab which investigates how chronic stress, mood and anxiety disorders, and sleep disturbance interact bidirectionally with immune and neuroendocrine processes to influence physical, mental health, and aging across the lifespan. Using psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) approaches, her research examines how stress “gets under the skin” among caregivers of spouses with dementia, individuals coping with cancer, pregnant women, and people exposed to chronic stress or discrimination related to race/ethnicity, sexual minority status, or financial strain. The overarching goal of this work is to identify key biological and behavioral pathways linking stress to health and aging to address health disparities and inform targeted behavioral interventions.
