Angela Incollingo Rodriguez, Assistant Professor
Angela Incollingo Rodriguez’s research on pressing societal issues that undermine health and health equity illustrate WPI’s commitment to infusing its STEM foundations with a human-centered approach to problem solving.
Incollingo Rodriguez, assistant professor of psychological & cognitive sciences and neuroscience, has been a pioneer in the scientific study of weight-based stigma in the context of pregnancy and maternal health. Over the past seven years, she has conducted seminal research on the phenomenology and health consequences of experiencing weight stigma during the perinatal period. She found that nearly two-thirds of women experience weight stigma during pregnancy and the postpartum period. That stigma increases risk for depression, gestational diabetes, and weight gain and retention. Supported by various grants, her work has led to 16 peer-reviewed publications on the topic, with many more forthcoming. These include reports of primary research as well as the first three theoretical models to guide future research and interventions. She is regularly invited to speak on this topic at scientific meetings, with community organizations, and across media outlets.
Incollingo Rodriguez has also spearheaded the international expansion of pregnancy-related weight stigma research, forging collaborations with teams across the world, including in Canada, the UK, and Australia. She serves as the international expert on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project aimed at understanding pregnancy-related weight stigma from multiple perspectives in Australian society, and developing policy to address it.
She will present at the International Weight Bias Summit next month in Montreal, Canada, where 30 weight stigma experts from countries across six continents will convene to discuss current directions in the field and develop a consensus statement for priorities going forward. Incollingo Rodriguez will also be delivering two presentations on the neuroscience of stress and stigma at the Pakistan Society of Basic & Applied Neuroscience conference through WPI’s partnership with World Women in Neuroscience.