Christina Pierpaoli

ChangingAging Contributor

Christina M. Pierpaoli is a third year graduate student in the Clinical Geropsychology doctoral program at the University of Alabama under the mentorship of Dr. Patricia A. Parmelee. Her research explores associations of chronic illness (e.g. osteoarthritis, HIV/AIDS, obesity) with psychological health in older adults. Current areas of inquiry include how feelings of usefulness to others in later life predict active (vs. passive) coping strategies with chronic pain; daily variability in subjective age and corresponding health appraisals; as well as obesity and its linkages with pain, depression, and activity patterns among adults with osteoarthritis. She has been published in the Journals of Aging & Health, Sex & Marital Therapy, featured in Evidence Based Treatments for Eating Disorders: Children, Adolescents and Adults, and presented at the American Psychological Association and Gerontological Society of America’s national conferences. Christina was a Killam Fellow at the University of Toronto, and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, with a BA in psychology from American University in Washington, DC. Christina was a Graduate Council Research Fellow and President of the affiliate group of the Association for Women in Science at the University of Alabama.