Welcome, y’ALL!

Sherika Nichole Hill

Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute Research and Policy Liaison

Duke University Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

As a clinical epidemiologist, I have a biopsychosocial research program that focuses on social predictors, biological mechanisms, and outcomes related to pediatric mental health and well-being. I work primarily with cohorts of vulnerable populations defined by low socioeconomic status, rural geography, minority race/ethnicity, chronic childhood health conditions, and more recently child maltreatment. Increasingly, I am learning how to leverage biomedical research to better understand how DNA methylation serves as an epigenetic marker of health risk, resilience, and disparities across the life course.

From a developmental science perspective, my research seeks to understand how mental health conditions or high risk-taking behaviors in adolescence develop during childhood and impact outcomes later in adulthood. Moreover, I am interested in how public policy can positively affect child development trajectories, especially for vulnerable populations.