Debra Umberson is Centennial Professor in Liberal Arts and Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also affiliated with the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies and the Population Research Center. She received her PhD in sociology from Vanderbilt University in 1985 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research from 1985-88. Her research focuses on relationships and health across the life course with a particular emphasis on intimate and family ties and the blending of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Her recent research considers how different types of relationships influence health behaviors over the life course and identifies the most important psychosocial mechanisms linking social ties and health behaviors. Recent articles have focused on marital transitions and body weight; stress and health behavior; gender and health habit processes in gay, lesbian, and straight couples; and health policy addressing the link between social ties and health. She has been the recipient of a National Research Service Award and a FIRST Award from the National Institute on Aging. Her current research, supported by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator in Health Policy Research Award, examines how committed relationships affect health-related behavior and health care, and how those processes vary across
gay, lesbian, and heterosexual unions. She is the current editor of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.