Biography

Andrea Kozai is a postdoctoral scholar in the Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology training program in the School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research spans topics relating to health, fitness, and physical activity in perinatal and dancing populations. Her primary research agenda aims to disentangle the mechanisms linking adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and preterm birth with future maternal cardiovascular disease and develop interventions to improve maternal health across the life course. 

Dr. Kozai’s research career began during her undergraduate studies as a double major in Dance and Exercise Science at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, graduating in 2004. While there, she implemented a research project comparing two types of supplemental conditioning for collegiate dancers. This project inspired her to obtain the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist credential from the National Strength &Conditioning Association, where she currently serves on the Executive Board of the Performing Arts Special Interest Group. In addition, she has been heavily involved in research and service work for the International Association for Dance Medicine &Science over the past two decades. She obtained her master’s degree in Dance Science from the University of Wolverhampton in 2014, and performed as a freelance professional dancer in New York City and Pittsburgh until 2018. 

Dr. Kozai obtained her PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022. Her doctoral work emphasized Women’s Health Epidemiology and included work on observational and interventional studies examining 24-hour movement behaviors (physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep) during pregnancy and their relationship with health outcomes. Her dissertation work included developing a novel biomarker of vascular development in the placenta. Currently, she is involved in projects aiming to characterize the impact of health behaviors on biomarkers of placental health and development in the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-be (nuMoM2b) cohort.