Dr. Roth received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Roanoke College in 1998. She then completed her doctoral degree in 2004 in the laboratory of Dr. Regina Sullivan at the University of Oklahoma, where she investigated the neurobehavioral basis of infant-caregiver attachment and the ontogeny of fear learning and memory. She then did her postdoctoral research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the laboratory of David Sweatt, working on DNA methylation in CNS plasticity and behavior. In 2010 she joined the University of Delaware as an Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Dr. Roth has received numerous honors and awards for scholarship, including a Young Investigator Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the 2010 Ziskind-Somerfeld award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry, a 2015 Early Career Impact Award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences, and she was elected a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2012. She is currently funded by the NIH, and her primary research interests are centered on identifying epigenetic changes associated with early-life caregiving experiences, particularly maltreatment. To better understand the relationship between caregiver maltreatment, epigenetic marking of the genome, and behavioral outcomes, her laboratory utilizes various molecular and behavior assays in developing and adult male and female rats. They focus on multiple brain regions that play a significant role in behavior and mental health, and that are particularly susceptible to the damaging effects of early-life stress.
