Lesley Cottrell, Ph.D. received a Master’s Degree in Child Clinical Psychology and a Doctorate in Developmental Psychology. She is the Section Chief for Epidemiological, Psychosocial, and Behavioral Research for the Department of Pediatrics and the Associate Director of Research for the CARDIAC Project- a child cardiovascular risk surveillance program. As the Local Evaluator for the WV Healthy Start/ HAPI Project, Dr. Cottrell collaborates with faculty and staff from the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Dentistry. Her current research interests examine parental influences on child and adolescent health risk decision making and behaviors. She is a co-investigator on an NHLBI-funded grant awarded to Drs. Carole Harris and Andrew Bradlyn (Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry – Health Research Center); a program which focuses on parental influences on children’s decisions to engage in health screenings. Her own research specifically examines parental monitoring with regard to the development of child and adolescent risk behaviors. This research endeavor has produced a comprehensive parental monitoring inventory as well as a parent-adolescent monitoring program. Fellow collaborators on this program include Dr. Steve Branstetter from the Department of Clinical Psychology, Dr. Carrie Rishel from the Department of Social Work, Dr. Carole V. Harris from the Health Research Center, and Dr. Scott Cottrell from the Department of Community Medicine.