I completed Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. degrees in Human Nutrition at McGill University. My Master's degree thesis focused on the impact of kefir, a fermented milk product, on cholesterol synthesis rates and circulating lipid profile in men with overweight and mild hypercholesterolemia. I developed a passion for research and a strong interest in foods that could influence disease risk factors. I, therefore, decided to pursue a Ph.D., this time studying the effects of medium-chain triglyceride oil consumption on energy expenditure, body composition, and cardio-metabolic risk factors in men and women with overweight/obesity. Upon completion of my training at McGill, I joined the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center and the Institute of Human Nutrition as a Post-Doctoral Fellow to further my knowledge in the area of energy metabolism and body composition.

My first faculty position came within 2 years of starting my fellowship and I joined the faculty of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. There, I continued my research on dietary fats, including medium-chain triglycerides, and dairy but also encountered colleagues interested in the role of sleep on energy balance regulation. However, it wasn't until my return to Columbia University, in 2007, that I received NIH funding to study sleep and energy balance and my research now focuses greatly on sleep and its association with obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors. Interestingly, we're finding that sleep influences diet and that diet may also influence sleep, bringing me back to my original passion related to foods and their influence on disease risk.