Dr. Freda Patterson

Dr. Patterson is an Associate Chair, Associate Professor, and Director of the PhD in Health Behavior Science and Promotion in the Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition at the University of Delaware. She also directs an externally funded Sleep and Health Research Program. As a public health scientist, she utilizes big-data, community-based, and controlled trial methodologies to elucidate the temporal and prospective relationships between sleep and circadian health with other cardiometabolic behavioral risk factors including physical inactivity, sedentary behavior, poor diet, and tobacco use in high-risk populations, The central hypothesis of her research program is that in the absence of sleep and circadian health, interventions to improve other cardiometabolic risk behaviors will be suboptimal. Currently she serves as a principal investigator for two NIH R01’s, a mentoring investigator for an American Heart Association post-doctoral award, and an internal University of Delaware Research Fund award.  She has published over 100 articles and book chapters, and serves as an associate editor for Sleep Health.

Full bio: https://www.udel.edu/academics/colleges/chs/departments/bhan/faculty/freda-patterson/