SHP Lab

What We Do

The Sexual Health Promotion (SHP) Lab seeks to improve the sexual health of individuals and couples using a holistic wellness approach. Located in the Seaton Center at University of Kentucky, the SHP Lab aims to conduct research and provide training that is consistent with the sexual health objectives of leading entities in sexual health promotion and public health.

The primary mission of the SHP Lab is to take a sex-positive approach to research and practice by focusing on promoting sexual health and healthy sexual expression inclusive of diverse sexual and gender identities. We also aim to facilitate connections between researchers, educators, and practitioners in order to bridge the gap between research and practice and to promote the importance of sexual health to overall well-being.

Through partnerships with University of Kentucky University Health Service, Family Care Center of Fayette County, The Well Lexington, and many other community and governmental agencies, the SHP Lab provides education on sexual health topics to students, schools, and the public at large using creative and collaborative mechanisms for delivering information that promotes sexual health. On the campus level, we serve as a collaborative interdisciplinary entity for students and professionals to use as a means for bringing together like-minded researchers, educators, and clinicians.

For more information on our current research projects, check out the Research Tab.

Are you a current University of Kentucky graduate or undergraduate student interested in being a member of the Sexual Health Promotion Lab? Or perhaps you’re looking into graduate school and think the Sexual Health Promotion Lab might be a good fit for you? Members of the lab have a wide variety of skill levels, exposure to research, and interests; no need to be a seasoned researcher to become involved.

Apply to SHP Lab Here

Director

Kristen Mark, PhD, MPH is the Director of the SHPLab and Associate Professor of Health Promotion at University of Kentucky. Dr. Mark holds a PhD in Health Behavior and an MPH in Biostatistics, both from Indiana University where she trained and collaborated with researchers at the Kinsey Institute and the Center for Sexual Health Promotion. Her research is focused in the area of sexual desire and satisfaction in couple relationships, and she has conducted studies on desire discrepancy, infidelity, predictors of sexual and relationship satisfaction, and women’s sexual health, to name a few. Dr. Mark teaches classes in sexuality education, foundations of health promotion, women’s health, sexual health promotion, research methods, and statistics. Dr. Mark also regularly contributes to media outlets such as Men’s Health and Cosmopolitan, and she consistently blogs for Psychology Today, The Huffington Post, Kinsey Confidential, and Good in Bed. Email Dr. Mark: kristen.mark@uky.edu

Research Assistants

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Julie Lasslo, MPH is a PhD candidate in health education at the University of Kentucky. Julie earned her BS in Health Education and her MPH in Community Health from Eastern Kentucky University.  Her professional experiences include serving as the state safe aging coordinator for the department of public health, various positions as a campus health educator, and currently she teaches full time in the department of health promotion at Eastern Kentucky University. Her research interests center around women’s health and rural health disparities. Email Julie Lasslo: Julie.Lasslo@uky.edu 

IMG_3823_webLindsey Mullis, MS is a PhD student in health education in the Department of Kinesiology & Health Promotion at the University of Kentucky.  She received her M.S. in health promotion and a certificate in developmental disabilities from the University of Kentucky after earning her B.A. from Transylvania University in both exercise science & psychology.  Her interest focuses on the sexual health promotion and sexuality rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  She is currently employed as the Health & Wellness coordinator for the Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky and partners with the Kentucky Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities to promote holistic healthy lifestyles for people with disabilities and the communities that serve them across the state of Kentucky. Email Lindsey Mullis: lindsey.c.mullis@uky.edu  

Nathaniel Wilson, MPH is a PhD student in the College of Education and has been a member of the Sexual Health Promotion Lab since his undergraduate degree. He also works as a Teaching Assistant in the College of Education’s Educational Policy and Evaluation program. In addition to his MPH in biostatistics, he holds an undergraduate degree in public health with a minor in Spanish language. Nathaniel also works as a freelance consultant in data science, completing projects related to data visualization using statistical software such as R or SAS. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, scuba diving, and playing ukulele. Nathaniel plans to incorporate his love of travel into his future career; he completed the study abroad program in Amsterdam with Dr. Mark. He is very interested in studying research methods and measurement tools specific to sex education, sexual health, and sexual desire. Email Nathaniel Wilson: nathaniel.wilson@uky.edu

Kamryn Michel, BA, is in her second year of the Health Promotion master’s program at the University of Kentucky. She earned a BA in General Studies with a concentration in psychology and public health from Eastern Kentucky University. In her free time, you can find her volunteering, working out, or cooking. She is very interested in studying sexual health, specifically, sexuality education and women’s health. Email Kamryn Michel: kamryn.michel@uky.edu

Katie Haus, BA, BASc, is a second year masters student in the Health Promotion program at the University of Kentucky. She earned a BA in Hispanic Studies and a BASc in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. In her free time, she can often be found reading, cooking, and crafting (among other things). Her primary research interests lie in examining sexual and romantic relationships, judgments and attitudes towards these relationships, sex-positive sex education, and the role of gender within these topics.

Katarina Hoskins is a first year masters student in the Health Promotion program at the University of Kentucky. She earned a BA in Elementary Education with a Spanish minor from the University of Kentucky. She has been teaching Elementary Spanish for the past four years. In her free time, she runs a podcast Warrior Woman’s Circle focused on normalizing taboo topics of conversation. She also loves to swim, read, and sing karaoke. Her primary interests lie in developing sexual health education, studying women’s health, and sexuality within different cultures. Email Katarina: katarina.hoskins@uky.edu

Michelle Stage, BA, is a first year masters student in the Health Promotion program at the University of Kentucky. She earned a BA psychology, emphasis in mental health, and a minor in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. In her spare time you can find her sketching, painting, and creating music. Her primary research interests lie in sexual health, women’s health, and sex education. Email Michelle: michelle.stage@uky.edu 

Allison Smith, MS, is a doctoral student in the Department of Family Sciences. She earned her MS in the Couple and Family Therapy program at the University of Kentucky in 2018, and currently works as a therapist at Parker Relationship Center in Lexington. She is completing two graduate certificates in Applied Statistics and Gerontology. Her research interests include intimacy and sexuality in couple relationships throughout adulthood and into old age. Email Allison: allison.goderwis@uky.edu

Ondine Quinn, MSW, is under supervision to become a certified sexuality educator through the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Studies from Ohio State University and her Master of Social Work from the University of Kentucky. Ondine completed the University of Michigan’s Sexual Health Certificate Program in 2018. Professionally she has experience working in abortion access, HIV/AIDS services, LGBTQ education and advocacy, and community organizing. Email Ondine Quinn: ondinequinn@uky.edu

Caroline Jenkins is a junior at the University of Kentucky. She is studying Biology and Mathematics with the hopes of one day attending medical school. She volunteers her time at the Salvation Army Clinic, as well as the Ronald McDonald Family Room in the Children’s Hospital. She is relatively new to the Sexual Health Promotion Lab but looks forward to exploring and learning from different topics such as sexuality, health disparities, and satisfaction in couple relationships. Email Caroline: caroline.jenkins@uky.edu

Celia Ziliak is a 17-year-old senior at Lafayette High School in Lexington, KY.  Celia is the School Climate Gender Dynamics Research Lead at the Prichard Committee Student Voice Team and the Vice President of her school’s environmental club. After dealing with sexual harassment and assault she did a research study on Peer-to-Peer Sexual Harassment in High School that got over 1,000 responses from 42 states and 2 U.S. territories and created an organization called (S)HE Matters which stands for Sexual Harassment Education Matters. Her work was featured in local newspapers as well as Teen Vogue and Ms. Magazine. Celia strives to spread awareness of the prevalence of sexual harassment/assault among youth and hopes to implement sexual violence prevention education in schools and is doing a placement in the lab for the 2019-2020 school year.

Claire Heaney, MA, is pursuing an M.S. in Family Sciences through the Employee Education Program at the University of Kentucky. She’s a New York City native and moved to Kentucky in June 2016. Claire graduated with an M.A. in English Literature from CUNY Queens College in 2013. Personal interests include writing, pop-culture presentations at comic conventions, traveling, and dancing. Her research interests (to name a few) are couples’ relationships via technology, risk-taking behaviors on and offline, sexual confidence, and masculinity/femininity identities. Email Claire: Claire.Heaney@uky.edu

Carrie Bohmer is a first-year Master’s student in Counseling Psychology. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2017 with a BA degree in both Psychology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality. In her undergraduate career, Carrie worked with sexual assault prevention programs and grounded herself in social justice issues. She has a range of research interests, however, they primarily center on female sexuality, bodily autonomy, relationships, and empowerment. Her future plans include a doctoral degree in Counseling or Clinical Psychology. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her two cats, exercising, and traveling to new places. Email: cbo276@uky.edu

Evangelina Moralez-Norris is a freshman at the University of Kentucky. She has always been passionate about sexual education and throughout high school she worked at the University of New Mexico on multiple teen pregnancy prevention studies. These studies aimed to identify the obstacles New Mexican teens face when trying to get birth control. In her spare time, you can find her playing the ukulele, working out, and volunteering. She is studying psychology and pursuing a certification in sexuality studies and hopes to become a sex researcher in the future.
Email: E.Moralez-Norris@uky.edu

Felicity Burch is an undergraduate student at University of Kentucky studying Psychology and Gender and Women’s Studies.

Former Research Assistants

Bunting_headshotAmanda Bunting, PhD is a post-doctoral fellow after earning her PhD in sociology at University of Kentucky. 

img_6470Hartley Feld, RN, MSN, PhD completed her PhD in the College of Nursing at University of Kentucky where she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar.  Hartley is currently faculty in Community and Public Health Nursing, leads Shoulder to Shoulder Global experiences in Ecuador, and oversees the global health opportunities for undergraduate nursing students. 

Erika Karle, MS, CHES completed her master’s degree in health promotion in 2019 from the University of Kentucky. She is now employed as a health promotion specialist at Toyota.

IMG_1486Christine Leistner, PhD earned her doctorate in health education at University of Kentucky in 2018 and is currently an Assistant Professor at California State University Chico.

IMG_1489Shannon Phelps, PhD earned her doctorate in health education at University of Kentucky in 2017 and is currently an Assistant Professor at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky.

IMG_1117Dani Rosenkrantz, PhD earned a doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology in 2018. She is currently at Duke University completing a clinical fellowship.

Madison Merzke, BPH graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 2019 from the University of Kentucky. 

lpLaura Vowels, MS, PGCert graduated from her MS program in couple and family therapy at the University of Kentucky in 2018. Laura is currently completing a PhD in social psychology at Southampton University in England where she is also in private practice as a couple’s therapist.

Matthew Vowels, BMus, MS graduated from the Family Science department at the University of Kentucky in 2018.

Ilya Okhotnikov Department of Family SciencesIlya Okhotnikov, PhD completed his PhD in 2018 at the University of Kentucky in the Department of Family Sciences. He is currently an Assistant Professor. Ilya has been married since 1993; he and his wife have one teenage daughter.

Cayla Hurst completed her undergraduate degree in public health and health communications. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Health Administration.

Samantha Moore, MS completed her master’s degree in counseling psychology in 2018. She is currently pursuing a PhD program in counseling psychology.


Holly Brown, MS, EdS is a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at University of Kentucky.

Jillian Norwick, MS earned her MS in Family Science with a concentration in Couple and Family Therapy from the University of Kentucky in the Department of Family Sciences in 2016. She currently works in New York City.

Affiliated Faculty