Lauren Shomaker PhD

Lauren Shomaker is a child clinical psychologist whose research interests center on understanding the role of psychological functioning in the etiology, development, and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Lauren Shomaker's research seeks to elucidate to what extent psychological factors, such as depression and stress, promote insulin resistance, a key precursor of type 2 diabetes, as well as related cardiometabolic health concerns. Lauren Shomaker has a particular interest in identifying the behavioral and physiological mechanisms by which depression and stress influence developmental trajectories of cardiometabolic health.

In a series of randomized controlled clinical trials at Colorado State University, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and partner sites throughout the U.S., we are testing whether mental health treatments for elevated depressive symptoms or stress in at-risk adolescents lead to improvements in their cardiometabolic health, lessening the future risk of developing major chronic diseases. We are also working with community members in Northern Colorado and throughout rural parts of the state to identify how to best translate scientific knowledge mental health interventions and cardiometabolic disease prevention into feasible and sustainable community-based programs that reach teenagers and their families.

Students, fellows, and early-career scientists working in the lab have an opportunity to learn about psychological, behavioral, and physiological assessments to study depression; stress; mindfulness; social functioning; nutrition, and eating patterns such as emotional eating, eating in the absence of hunger, disordered eating, and binge eating; physical and cardiorespiratory fitness; and cardiometabolic risk. Trainees are exposed to randomized controlled clinical trials utilizing a variety of therapeutic modalities, including cognitive-behavioral, mindfulness, and interpersonal psychotherapy, as well as community-based participatory research.