Rate My Professor Mona El-Sheikh

Mona El-Sheikh, Ph.D., serves as the Leonard Peterson & Co., Inc. Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Auburn University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Psychology from West Virginia University in 1989, an M.A. in Psychology from the same institution in 1988, and a B.A. in Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology from The American University in Cairo, Egypt, in 1984. El-Sheikh began her academic career at Auburn University in 1990 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, progressing to Associate Professor from 1990 to 2000. She transitioned to the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, achieving tenure as Associate Professor in 2000-2001, full Professor in 2002-2005, Alumni Professor in 2005-2010, and her current endowed position since 2010. Earlier roles include Visiting Instructor and Graduate Teaching Assistant at West Virginia University, and Graduate Research Assistant at The American University in Cairo.

El-Sheikh's multidisciplinary research investigates child and adolescent development amid familial risks such as marital aggression, child abuse, and parental alcoholism, as well as socioecological factors including poverty and ethnic minority status. Utilizing a biopsychosocial approach, her studies assess physiological reactivity and regulation through sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning, and sleep-wake processes as mechanisms influencing psychological adjustment, physical health, cognitive functioning, and academic achievement. Longitudinal cohorts tracked from childhood through young adulthood reveal developmental trajectories and intervention insights. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NICHD, NHLBI) and National Science Foundation, her program has secured over $12 million, including the ongoing NHLBI grant R01-HL136752-05 (PI, 2023-2027, $1,999,960 direct costs). With over 180 peer-reviewed publications, highlights include articles in Sleep Medicine Reviews (2026), Sleep (2024), Developmental Psychology (2024), and Child Development Perspectives (2022); she edited the book Sleep and Development: Familial and Socio-cultural Considerations. El-Sheikh directs the Child Sleep, Health, and Development Lab and has earned the 2021 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award, 2019 Fellowship in American Psychological Association Division 7, Auburn University Faculty Award for Excellence (2008), and Creative Research and Scholarship Award (2007).