Stacey Aaron
Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, College of Applied Health Sciences
BIRCWH Scholar
About
I am an exercise physiologist whose research explores how cardiovascular disease risk factors and lifestyle behaviors influence cerebrovascular function, with a particular focus on women’s health and sex differences. My current work examines how the menopausal transition alters cerebrovascular control mechanisms—such as dynamic autoregulation, cerebrovascular reactivity, neurovascular coupling, and cerebral blood flow waveform morphology—and how these changes relate to cognitive function. In the long term, I aim to integrate vascular imaging and hemodynamic modeling to develop scalable, noninvasive assessments for detecting and tracking early vascular brain changes in women. A complementary line of research will utilize these assessments to evaluate the impact of aerobic and resistance exercise, as well as other lifestyle interventions, on cerebrovascular health. Ultimately, my goal is to identify physiological biomarkers that reveal how maintaining cardiovascular health supports cerebrovascular integrity and promotes healthy brain aging in women.