I am Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at University of California, Merced, USA working in the area of health psychology. I am also Professor of Behavior Change in the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at Griffith University, Australia. At UC Merced I am Director of the SHARPP Lab and Chair of the Graduate (PhD) Program in Psychology. I have also been visiting Professor at the Universities of Rome, Bordeaux, and Grenoble, and Hong Kong Baptist University.

My research applies social psychological theories to predict and change health behaviors. I study relations between theory-based psychological constructs (e.g., attitudes, intentions and motives, self-efficacy, perceived control, self-control, habit, planning, personality traits) and health behavior, and how health professionals can use knowledge of these determinants to promote health behavior change through intervention. I am also interested in developing and advancing psychological theory through theoretical integration, particularly the integration of constructs and processes from social cognition theories, theories of motivation, and dual-process and dual-phase models. In addition, I am interested in research synthesis, particularly testing predictions of psychological theory across multiple populations, contexts, and behaviors using meta-analysis.

I am editorial board member of twelve international peer-reviewed journals including Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Atherosclerosis, British Journal of Health Psychology, International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Motivation Science, Psychological Bulletin, Psychology and Health, Stress and Health, and Psychology, Health, and Medicine. I am former Senior co-Editor (with Blair T. Johnson) of the Health Psychology section of Social Science and Medicine (2020-2022), Editor-in-Chief of Health Psychology Review (2011-2019), Stress and Health (2014-2019), and Psychology of Sport and Exercise (2007-2011). I received a Highly Cited Researcher Awards from Clarivate Analytics four years in a row (2020 to 2023). I am Fellow of Division 38 (Health Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS), the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP), the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), and the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM).

Fun facts: I have lived in eight countries (Australia, Finland, Hong Hong, Italy, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States) and have run a marathon in under 2h 45min.