Abbey Wester

Abbey has previously worked in tobacco prevention and control with the University of Virginia. Funded through the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, she helped to develop and test a brief youth tobacco intervention aimed at providing education to prevent tobacco initiation and encourage cessation among youth. Additionally, Abbey has been very involved with Girls on the Run (GOTR) as a coach in Denver, CO, Charlottesville, VA, and Chicago, IL. Focused on the importance of both mental and physical health, GOTR empowers young girls to believe in themselves, build community, and develop healthy friendships. She also previously worked on an infant vegetable study in the Children's Eating Lab at the University of Colorado Anschutz that focused on repeated exposure.

Abbey is interested in exploring how community-based programs can support children and adolescents. Her particular interests focus on understanding how these programs can be used to promote healthy development and wellbeing to set kids up for success. She is a part of the CITIES Mentoring Project which partners student mentees in Chicago Public Schools with undergraduate student mentors to encourage academic engagement and achievement during adolescence and beyond.

In the future, Abbey plans to pursue a career in academia with a position that allows her to teach and conduct high impact research.

Fun Fact: Abbey has a labradoodle named Luna.

(in press) Porter, K. J., Dunlap, C. M., Krukowski, R. A., Wester, A. G., & Little, M. A. (2024). The potential feasibility of tobacco-focused medication therapy management in pharmacies affiliated with Federally Qualified Health Centers: Perspectives of pharmacists. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2024.102210

Pilehvari, A., Krukowski, R. A., You, W., Wiseman, K. P., Wester, A. G., Cohn, W. F., Anderson, R. T., & Little, M. A. (2024). Unveiling rural and Appalachian disparities in cigarette smoking through the social vulnerability index and other county-level characteristics. The Journal of Rural Health, n/a(n/a), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12860

Lang, A. E., Porter, K. J., Krukowski, R. A., Wester, A. G., Pilehvari, A., & Little, M. A. (2024). U.S. Military Tobacco and Nicotine Policy Lagging Behind the Times. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 66(2), 380–383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2023.10.001

Moret-Tatay, C., Wester, A. G., & Gamermann, D. (2020). To Google or Not: Differences on How Online Searches Predict Names and Faces. Mathematics, 8(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/math8111964