I have devoted my research career to understanding how environmental factors (particularly social stressors) influence female health, mostly through studies of nonhuman primates (NHPs), with a focus on chronic diseases of aging. This has involved the development of multiple NHP models of human health. We are currently investigating whether consumption of a Mediterranean diet attenuates physiological stress responses, and the deleterious effects of social stress on health that are observed in human and nonhuman primates consuming a Western diet. In recent years my lab, developed a female NHP model of aging and physical function. Using this model, we are investigating the impact of Mediterranean versus Western diets on physical function and metabolic perturbations consistent with a pre-diabetic condition that increases risk for chronic disease of aging. Currently we are assessing the effects of diet and stress on neuropathological characteristics associated with Alzheimer’s disease. My research program is inherently collaborative, multidisciplinary, and translational, as is evident from cross-appointments in Translational Medicine, and Physiology and Pharmacology, and membership in several interdisciplinary intramural research centers.