Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine invites the public to Chronic Stress, Existential Stress, and Biological Aging, which will be presented by Elissa Epel, PhD, on Dec. 1 at its downtown campus in the Diboll Auditorium. The event is from 10:30-11:30 a.m., on the ground floor of the Tidewater Building, located at 1440 Canal St. in New Orleans
Epel is a professor and vice-chair in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center, associate director of the Center for Health and Community and the NIDDK UCSF NORC, member of the National Academy of Medicine, president of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and co-chair of the Mind and Life Institute Steering Council.
Epel studies psychological, social, and behavioral processes related to chronic psychological stress that accelerate biological aging, focusing on overeating and metabolism and the telomere/telomerase maintenance system. She and her colleagues develop and test interventions that combine behavioral, psychological, and mindfulness training. Currently, she is testing short-term interventions to improve stress resilience and physiological homeostatic capacity, to slow aging. She co-leads studies funded by NIA, NCCIH, NIMH, and NHLBI, including a national Stress Network and Emotional Well Being Network. In addition, she has been involved in National Institute Health initiatives on the reversibility of early life adversity and the science of behavior change.