She is a qualitatively trained researcher who has worked broadly in the areas of food, bodies and health. In 2015 Dr. Hayes-Conroy was awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant for her project in Medellín and Bogotá, Colombia, examining the role of bodies, sensation, and body movement in youth-based creative activity and community engagement. Dr. Hayes-Conroy also leads an NSF-NRT Innovations in Graduate Education project that uses her broad interest in the body to train graduate students in transdisciplinary bio-social collaboration. Dr. Hayes-Conroy received her Ph.D. in geography from Clark University in 2009.