{"id":14,"date":"2017-04-06T17:47:55","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T17:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2017-04-24T21:27:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T21:27:35","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"[mk_page_section layout_structure=”half_left” bg_image=”http:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/gmerchant.001.png” full_width=”true” full_height=”true” padding_top=”55″ padding_bottom=”55″ top_shape_color=”#ffffff” bottom_shape_color=”#ffffff”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”I am a behavioral scientist whose research is at the intersection of psychology, public health informatics, and data science.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:27|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C600%2C600italic%2C700%2C700italic%2C800%2C800italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1492630931216{padding-right: 60px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”My work broadly examines how online and offline social networks influence our health behaviors and healthcare decision-making.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:27|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C600%2C600italic%2C700%2C700italic%2C800%2C800italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1492630936741{padding-right: 60px !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/mk_page_section][vc_row fullwidth=”true” equal_columns=”true” attached=”true” css=”.vc_custom_1491934581407{background-color: #545084 !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/4″][mk_button dimension=”flat” size=”large” icon=”mk-moon-twitter” url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrGMerchant” target=”_blank” align=”center” fullwidth=”true” margin_bottom=”0″ bg_color=”#545084″ btn_hover_bg=”#ffb599″ btn_hover_txt_color=”#545084″]Twitter[\/mk_button][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][mk_button dimension=”flat” size=”large” icon=”mk-moon-google” url=”https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=TNBg2QcAAAAJ&hl=en” target=”_blank” align=”center” fullwidth=”true” margin_bottom=”0″ bg_color=”#545084″ btn_hover_bg=”#ffb599″ btn_hover_txt_color=”#545084″]Google Scholar[\/mk_button][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][mk_button dimension=”flat” size=”large” icon=”mk-icon-search-plus” url=”https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Gina_Merchant” target=”_blank” align=”center” fullwidth=”true” margin_bottom=”0″ bg_color=”#545084″ btn_hover_bg=”#ffb599″ btn_hover_txt_color=”#545084″]ResearchGate[\/mk_button][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][mk_button dimension=”flat” size=”large” icon=”mk-moon-microscope” url=”https:\/\/healthsciences.ucsd.edu\/som\/dbmi\/people\/fellows\/Pages\/Gina-Merchant,-PhD-.aspx” target=”_blank” align=”center” fullwidth=”true” margin_bottom=”0″ bg_color=”#545084″ btn_hover_bg=”#ffb599″ btn_hover_txt_color=”#545084″]UCSD DBMI[\/mk_button][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][mk_page_section bg_image=”http:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/vo32bd8-e1491500951395.jpg” bg_position=”center center” video_color_mask=”#000000″ full_height=”true” padding_top=”35″ padding_bottom=”35″ top_shape_color=”#ffffff” bottom_shape_color=”#ffffff” sidebar=”sidebar-1″][vc_column][vc_row_inner is_fullwidth_content=”false” css=”.vc_custom_1491499140174{padding-right: 40px !important;padding-left: 40px !important;}”][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][mk_icon_box2 icon_size=”64″ icon=”mk-li-like” icon_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.61)” icon_background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.51)” icon_border_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.01)”][\/mk_icon_box2][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][mk_icon_box2 icon_size=”64″ icon=”mk-li-comments” icon_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.62)” icon_background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.51)” icon_border_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.01)”][\/mk_icon_box2][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][mk_icon_box2 icon_size=”64″ icon=”mk-moon-users-4″ icon_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.63)” icon_background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.51)” icon_border_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.01)”][\/mk_icon_box2][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner is_fullwidth_content=”false” css=”.vc_custom_1491940544720{padding-right: 00px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_inner][mk_padding_divider size=”20″][vc_column_text]I am interested in quantitatively and qualitatively measuring how spending time on social media platforms, creating and engaging with content, affects our health. I seek to uncover methods to conduct large-scale content analysis of unstructured text data that is exchanged in online networks. Once we are able to interpret these data, I believe we will have a better understanding of how to intervene in virtual spaces to promote health-enhancing behaviors, and better predict who is at risk for health impairing behaviors. I want to discover ways to\u00a0leverage social media and other Web 2.0 technologies to improve individuals\u2019 health, and better understand how on- and offline social networks\u00a0synergistically\/antagonistically influence\u00a0health attitudes and behaviors.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][mk_padding_divider][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/mk_page_section][mk_page_section layout_structure=”half_right” bg_image=”http:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ctri.jpg” bg_color=”#778da9″ full_height=”true” padding_top=”45″ padding_bottom=”45″][vc_column][vc_row_inner is_fullwidth_content=”false” css=”.vc_custom_1491499140174{padding-right: 40px !important;padding-left: 40px !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]I am currently a National Library of Medicine Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California San Diego in the Department of Biomedical Informatics with a secondary appointment in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health. I also lecture at California State San Marcos. My undergraduate and masters degrees are in Psychology, and my doctorate is in Public Health.\u00a0 I code in R and am an advocate for increasing diversity in coding, especially among women in the behavioral and social sciences. In my spare time I enjoy playing soccer, running, cooking, gardening, and hanging out with my family.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/mk_page_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[mk_page_section layout_structure=”half_left” bg_image=”http:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/gmerchant.001.png” full_width=”true” full_height=”true” padding_top=”55″ padding_bottom=”55″ top_shape_color=”#ffffff” bottom_shape_color=”#ffffff”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”I am a behavioral scientist whose research is at the intersection of psychology, public health informatics, and data science.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:27|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C600%2C600italic%2C700%2C700italic%2C800%2C800italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1492630931216{padding-right: 60px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”My work broadly examines how online and offline social networks influence our health behaviors and healthcare decision-making.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:27|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C600%2C600italic%2C700%2C700italic%2C800%2C800italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1492630936741{padding-right: 60px !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/mk_page_section][vc_row […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmerchant.ucsd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}