Research
Research Interests
Digital Interventions
Advances in technology has made digital interventions more accessible, acceptable, and scalable than ever before. Improving the rigor of designing, evaluating, and implementing these interventions is crucial to enhancing their effectiveness.
Behavior Change
Healthy eating and physical activity behaviors result from a complex set of cognitive, social, and environmental factors. Understanding how to leverage these behavioral mechanisms through different intervention modalities is key to improving the health of individuals and communities.
Early Childhood
Early childhood is an important stage in life for developing eating and physical activity behaviors. Leveraging developmental progress at this stage in life is critical to lifelong health eating and physical activity behaviors.
Selected Publications
For a full list of publications, please visit my Google Scholar
Reyes, L.I., Johnson, S.L., Oke, S., Carmona, B.A., Bellows, L.L. (2025). Understanding Parents’ Digital Use and Preferences for a m-Health Intervention, in Low-Income Rural Settings. Health Education Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyaf024
Bellows, L.L, Oke, S.A., Reyes, L.I., Carmona, B.A., Johnson, S.L. (2025) Development of a Digital Parent Intervention to Promote Healthy Eating and Activity in Preschoolers: The eHEROs Study. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, S1499-4046(25)00012-0. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2025.01.008
Oke, S., Tan, M. (2022) Techniques for Advertising Healthy Food in School Settings to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Consumption. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 59. doi:10.1177/00469580221100165
Phillips, SA., Ali, M., Modrich, C., Oke, S., Bond, S. (2019). Advances in Health Technology and Implementation in the Era of Healthy Living: Implications for Precision Medicine. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 62(1), 44-49. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2018.12.007
Master’s Thesis
Title: Creating an Interactive Aid to Mediate Obesity Diagnoses and Management Through Visualization
Problem: Physicians often do not have the tools and resources to discuss their patients’ obesity diagnosis, or talk about lifestyle changes for obesity management.
Solution: I developed an app with nutrition, exercise, and obesity information to mediate that patient-provider interaction. I conducted formative interviews and usability testing with healthcare providers, then tested my fully functional app with patients at University of Illinois Cardiac Rehabilitation Center.
Read my full thesis here.
Undergraduate Thesis
Title: EPIDEMIC: An Abstraction of the Physiological and Psychological Causes and Effects of Obesity
Obesity is a complex condition with physiological and psychological causes and effects. My thesis visualized the intermixing of social and psychological factors with physiological processes. That obesity is more prevalent in populations with low literacy and low socioeconomic resources underscores the importance of visuals in communicating about this condition.
Read my full thesis here.