Davenport Lab (Sleep Empowers Lab)
The Sleep Empowers Lab, led by Mattina Davenport, PhD, focuses on improving community sleep health through community-driven research and initiatives to improve sleep health equity by empowering populations. Dr. Davenport is passionate about fostering and inspiring the curiosity of the next generation of scientists and population health leaders. The population health research in the Sleep Empowers Lab is currently focused on improving the equitable detection of sleep deficiency in pediatric healthcare systems and community settings (e.g., primary care and school-based health). The Sleep Empowers lab applies mixed methods and machine learning approaches to improve surveillance of multidimensional & subdiagnostic sleep characteristics, identify and address social and environmental determinants (e.g., housing, social support, environmental pollutants) of sleep health and related comorbidities (e.g., depression, suicidal behaviors, and cardiovascular health), and increase accessibility to sleep disorder assessment & evaluation in the community among populations that need it most.
Current Research Studies
- Sleep Deficiencies Computable Phenotype: NIH K01-funded population health study that uses machine learning approaches to support the equitable identification of pediatric sleep deficiency in the electronic health care records.
- Determinants of Nocturnal Arousal Patterns: A community-based observational study that utilizes to assess daily association between physiological arousal, sleep disturbance, and racism-related stressors in adolescents across 14 days.
Educational Opportunities
Are you a trainee (undergraduate, graduate, or medical student) interested in interning or shadowing? Email us at SleepEmpowermentLab@NationwideChildrens.org.
Meet Our Team
Mattina Davenport, PhD
Principal Investigator, Assistant Professor
Mattina.Davenport@NationwideChildrens.org
Mattina Davenport, PhD, is a school psychology trained Pediatric Psychologist with expertise in pediatric sleep. Dr. Davenport is a Principal Investigator in the Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She is a Health Services and Pediatric Sleep Health Researcher that leads the Sleep Empowers Lab. Her population health research, deploying machine learning and bias mitigation methods, is funded by the National, Heart, Lung, Blood Institute/National Institute of Health.
Tracy Afriyie
Research Intern
Tracy Afriyie@NationwideChildrens.org
Tracy is a third year undergraduate student at The Ohio State University majoring in Biology and minoring in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is a research intern in the Davenport Lab, and her interests lie in the reproductive health of women of color as well as the many health disparities across race, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and religion. Tracy hopes to take what she has learned from the Davenport Lab and use it as tool in her future healthcare career in order to help marginalized populations.
Devante Barnes
Student Research Intern
Devante.Barnes@NationwideChildrens.org
Devante joined the Center of Childhood Equity and Outcomes Reseach in May 2023 as Student Research Intern in the Sleep Empowers (Davenport) Lab. He is a current undergraudate student at Ohio State studying Health Sciences with a minor in Global Public Health. Devante's interests are focused on improving health equity and literacy through a collaborative, translational research lens. He is also interested in health policy and how it shapes individual and community health, specifically in underserved populations. Devante's goals are centered around community-based medicine, translational research, and public health policy.
Lyric Ransom
Student Research Intern
Lyric.Ransom@NationwideChildrens.org
Lyric is an undergraduate student at The Ohio State University. She is pursuing her BA in Psychology with a minor in Youth Development. Lyric's primary focus of interest is bridging the gap(s) for receiving autism diagnosis referrals for children with intersectionality. Additionally, identifying the social determinants and/or biases, that factor into this imbalance of receiving adequate referrals/diagnoses. Her goal is to see how this is also impacted/implemented on the school level and if this affects education performance.