Dr. Emma C. Potter is a family and health scholar with experience teaching and lecturing for a variety of classes (human sexuality, advanced family relationships, child and adolescent development, gerontology) at different institutions. She engages students, particularly in a virtual environment, by incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives into her courses. She credits her interdisciplinary educational background (American Studies and Human Development) for providing her with tools to account for difference (i.e., learning styles and academic approaches), ensure critical engagement, and practice reflexivity in the classroom.

Dr. Potter's research examines mechanisms of health, often from an intersectional lens, and centers experiences of those often sidelined or invisible from research and policy. Her current lines of research include sleep among sexual minority adults, women's health and family relationships during COVID-19, and women and their families' experiences with undiagnosed illnesses. Dr. Potter explicitly considers the inherent contradictions and opposing structural forces embedded in health and medicine. Her line of family research argues that health, often considered an individual responsibility devoid of familial or systemic influence, is a cultural artifact demanding interdisciplinary examination. Dr. Potter's work has been published in LGBT Health, Journal of Bisexuality, Family Relations, Journal of Family Theory and Review, Research on Aging, Journal of Women and Aging, Journal of LGBT Family Studies, and Sleep Health. 

Selected Publications 
Potter, E. C., & Patterson, C. J. (2019). Health-Related Quality of Life among sexual minorities: The burden of health disparities in the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Data. LGBT Health, 6(7), 579-369. 

Potter, E. C., Allen, K. R., & Roberto, K. A. (2018). Agency and fatalism in older Appalachian women’s information seeking about gynecological cancer. Journal of Women & Aging, 31(3), 192-212.  

Potter, E. C., Roberto, K. A., Brossoie, N., & Blieszner, R. (2017). Decisions, decisions: African American families responding to MCI. Research on Aging: Special Issue on Minority Aging, 39, 476-500.