Teresa Seeman, Ph.D., is a Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology in the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Previously, she was on the faculty in the Department of Epidemiology in the Yale School of Public Health from 1985 to 1995 and then spent two years on the faculty at the Andrus School of Gerontology at USC. She joined the faculty at UCLA in January 1998 with joint appointments in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Her research interests focus on the role of socio-cultural factors in health and aging with specific interest in understanding the biological pathways through which these factors influence health and aging. A major focus of her research relates to understanding how aspects of the social environment, particularly social ties, influence health and aging. Dr. Seeman was a member of the MacArthur Research Network on Successful Aging (1985-1995) and is currently a member of the MacArthur Research Network on Socio-economic Status and Health. She is also currently a consultant to the Behavioral and Social Research Program at the National Institute on Aging on issues relating to the integration of physiological parameters into more socio-behavioral models of health and aging. In collaboration with Drs. Bruce McEwen and Burton Singer, she has taken a lead in empirical research on the new concept of allostatic load. Relevant publications include: Seeman TE, Singer B, Rowe J, McEwen B. Exploring a new concept of cumulative biological risk -- Allostatic load & its health consequences: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 98(8): 4770-4775, 2001; Seeman & McEwen, “The Impact of the Social Environment on Neuroendocrine Function” (Psychosomatic Medicine), and Taylor, Repetti, & Seeman, "What is an Unhealthy Environment and How Does It Get Under the Skin?” (Ann Rev Psychol).