Erica M. Ahlich Assistant Professor

My clinical and research interests focus broadly on the promotion of physical health and sense of wellbeing among adults, with a particular interest in eating behaviors. Recent focus areas have included:

• Antecedents and consequences of dysregulated eating
• Affective processes (feelings, emotions, mood, stress) relevant to eating behaviors
• Aspects of the built environment and individual vulnerability factors (e.g., interoception, emotion regulation, social support, food craving, body image) as they relate to eating behaviors and health disparities in cardiometabolic health
• Historically under-represented populations in eating and weight-related research
• Disordered eating risk factors
• Predicting and improving bariatric surgery outcomes
• Innovative methods of investigating dysregulated eating behaviors and underlying mechanisms (ecological momentary assessment; qualitative, observational, and experimental approaches)
• Issues of measurement (e.g., measurement invariance)
• Advanced statistical techniques (e.g., multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, within-person analytic approaches).