Dr. Morrill embarked in the arena of health psychology at Yale University Department of Psychology, under Judith Rodin, PhD. For the next nine years she honed her research skills at New England Research Institutes, where she generated $4 million in extramural federal funding. In 2002 Dr. Morrill helped Hortensia Amaro, PhD, establish the Institute for Urban Health Research at Northeastern University with $750,000 of intramural funding.