Biography

Dr. Molly Waring is an epidemiologist, Associate Professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences, and Director of the Methodology Core of the UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media. Her program of research focuses on leveraging social media for health promotion, with a focus on weight management among pregnant and post-partum persons and parents. She has recently led three grant-funded projects in the areas of post-partum weight loss, gestational weight gain, social media, and misinformation related to child nutrition funded by the NIH, USDA, and InCHIP. Dr. Waring’s research program also includes public health surveillance studies using data from nationally-representative public health surveys (e.g., the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [NHANES], National Health Information Trends Survey [HINTS]) and social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) to improve our understanding of the national and international landscape of health behavior and healthcare utilization, particularly related to obesity and women’s health. Dr. Waring has published more than 140 papers in peer-reviewed journals and mentors both undergraduate and graduate students.