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Category: Spotlight

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Carolyn Heckman

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Carolyn Heckman

Dr. Carolyn J. Heckman is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Co-Leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. She received a BA in Psychology from Brown University and PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Iowa. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in health psychology and addictions at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is also a licensed psychologist.

Dr. Heckman has published more than 100 research papers and presented at many national and international conferences. Much of her work focuses on skin cancer prevention and detection. Her other interests include online interventions and tobacco use and cessation. She has been funded numerous times by the National Cancer Institute and has also received funding from the American Cancer Society and Pfizer, Inc.

In addition to her research, Dr. Heckman is a member of the NIH Community Level Health Promotion study section and she is on the Editorial Board of the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine. She is the Founder/Leader of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey’s Dissemination and Implementation Science Working Group. Dr. Heckman has served on several steering and advisory, grant review, search committee, training, and other committees and community groups. For example, she served as the National Chair of the Don’t Fry Day skin cancer prevention awareness campaign sponsored by the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention.

Currently, Dr. Heckman is a Co-Investigator on a five-year R01 study called “A Multi-Level Investigation of U.S. Indoor Tanning Policy Enactment, Implementation, Compliance, Impact, and Economics” with Klein Buendel’s Dr. David Buller. The goals of this research project are to complete three specific aims: 1) conduct a comparative case study to elucidate the indoor tanning legislation adoption process; 2) use a pseudo-patron (confederate) assessment, national survey, and archival data to investigate indoor tanning legislation implementation, as well as indoor tanning and sunburn outcomes among adolescents and young adults; and 3) integrate data from the first two aims and external data to assess economic effects relevant to policy sustainability of indoor tanning stringency, enforcement, and compliance.

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Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Susan Loeb

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Susan Loeb

Susan J. Loeb, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN, is a Professor in the College of Nursing and the College of Medicine at Penn State University. She earned her nursing degrees at Penn State in 1988, 1992 and 2002. She has also received numerous honors and awards, including being a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing since 2012.

Dr. Loeb’s signature program of research focuses on addressing the health needs of older incarcerated people with chronic conditions, including those in the advanced stages of disease, and extending through their end of life (EOL). Her expertise in multiple methodological approaches is applied to a series of studies including research, development, dissemination, and implementation of a toolkit for training prison staff in strategies to enhance geriatric and EOL care in prisons. This toolkit has more recently been transformed into computer-based training modules, referred to as “Enhancing Care of the Aged and Dying in Prisons.”

She is currently a Multiple Principal Investigator with Dr. Barbara Walkosz, Klein Buendel Senior Scientist, on a study funded by the National Institute on Aging where their team is conducting research and development on a highly interactive and media-rich set of prototype modules based on best practices in peer caregiving in correctional settings. This training is referred to as “Just Care.”

Dr. Loeb and Dr. Walkosz plan to expand their research collaboration into another age-related disease area: Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias. They hope to transform best practices in Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias care into media-rich, highly interactive, computer-based educational modules to prepare corrections staff and peer caregivers to meet the growing care needs of people who are incarcerated and living with cognitive decline.

Dr. Loeb’s research has been disseminated through more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous conference presentations. She has served as Principal Investigator or Multiple Principal Investigator on five studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and as Co-Investigator on two additional NIH-funded studies.

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Anne Ray

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Anne Ray

Anne Ray, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health in the Department of Health, Behavior & Society. She earned a B.S. in Psychology from Penn State University in 2004, an M.Ed. in Counselor Education from Penn State in 2010, and a Ph.D. in Biobehavioral Health from Penn State in 2011.

Dr. Ray’s areas of research interest include etiology and prevention of substance use in adolescence and emerging adulthood; self-regulated drinking behaviors and their associations with alcohol use and consequences; gender differences in alcohol use behaviors; mechanisms of change and moderators of program efficacy; and event-specific measurement of health behaviors.

Klein Buendel and Dr. Ray are currently collaborating on two intervention-based research projects. The first intervention is called Parenting Now. It aims to provide an efficient, engaging, and effective means to enhance parents’ ability to reduce prevalence of substance use and its consequences through a digital curriculum for parents of high-school-aged adolescents. Parenting Now is a brief, interactive, self-paced, and digital curriculum for parents of high-school-aged adolescents created from the evidence-based Parent Handbook, available in hard copy and DVD for college-bound youth only. The curriculum is needed because most parent-based prevention interventions target children or young adolescents, neglecting older adolescents, despite that fact that alcohol use increases in frequency and risk through mid-adolescence. This research project is led by Dr. Michael Hecht from Real Prevention and is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health (AA025293).

The second intervention is a new research project designed to curb drinking and risky sexual behavior by first-year college students. The new study will assess the impact of a brief, personalized intervention utilizing an innovative, cross-tailored, dynamic feedback component. The intervention will purposefully integrate content on the relationship between alcohol use and risky sexual behavior. It will leverage technology to incorporate daily assessments of student behavior and deliver weekly dynamic feedback to help reduce risky behavior. This research project is led by Dr. Ray and is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health (AA028246)

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Abby King

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Abby King

Abby C. King, Ph.D., is a Professor of Health Research and Policy (Epidemiology) and a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her past research has focused on investigating the development, evaluation, and translation of public health interventions to reduce chronic disease in the U.S. and globally. Her current research focuses on expanding the reach and generalizability of evidence-based interventions through the use of state-of-the-art communication technologies, community-based participatory research perspectives, and policy-level approaches to health promotion.

Presently, Dr. King is a Co-Investigator on the SBIR Phase II research project with Dr. Valerie Myers from Klein Buendel called “¡Caminemos Juntas!”. The project proposes to connect Latinas with one another in order to improve walking habits by increasing social support and decreasing perceived barriers through the use of a smartphone app. It is funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health (MD009652; Dr. Valerie Myers, Principal Investigator).

In addition to her research, Dr. King has served on a number of government task forces in the U.S. and abroad, including membership in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Scientific Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020, and the Science Board of the U.S. President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. She has also taken part in various types of community and international work, including Active For Life, Citizen Science to Promote Sustained Physical Activity in Low-Income Communities, Preventing Obesity Among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Women and Children in Melbourne, Australia; and Computer-based Physical Activity Advice for Ethnic Minority Aging Adults in San Jose. Dr. King has received many distinguished awards and honors throughout her career.

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Aida Midgett and Dr. Diana Doumas

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Aida Midgett and Dr. Diana Doumas

Dr. Aida Midgett and Dr. Diana Doumas, both from Boise State University, currently collaborate with KB Senior Scientist, Dr. Valerie Myers, on the STAC-T Project. STAC-T is a technology-delivered adaptation of a bullying intervention program for schools – STAC – that teaches students to act as “defenders” on behalf of targets of bullying. STAC stands for four bullying intervention strategies: “Stealing the Show,” “Turning it Over,” “Accompanying Others,” and “Coaching Compassion.”

Dr. Aida Midgett is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Counselor Education. She obtained her doctoral degree in Educational Psychology/Counseling Psychology and her masters degree in Community Counseling from Northern Arizona University. Her professional background includes behavioral health and school-based research, training counselor education students, and evaluating service-learning projects related to multicultural training. Dr. Midgett is a Licensed Professional Counselor. She has worked as a clinician in university, agency, and in-patient mental health hospital settings. Currently, her research focuses on evaluating the bystander bullying intervention program in K-12 settings.

Dr. Diana Doumas is a Distinguished Professor and Director for the Institute for the Study of Behavioral Health and Addiction. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Psychologist in Idaho. She is a member of the American Counseling Association, the Association of Counselor Education and Supervision, and Research Society on Alcoholism. Her experience includes both individual and couples counseling for clients with substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and interpersonal concerns. She specializes in empirically-based interventions and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Her research interests include substance abuse prevention and intervention, with a focus on harm reduction and online interventions for high-risk college and high school students.

The STAC-T project is funded by a small business (STTR) grant to Klein Buendel from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health (MD014943; Dr. Aida Midgett, Principal Investigator).

Spotlight:
Dr. Christie Rizzo

Spotlight:
Dr. Christie Rizzo

Christie J. Rizzo, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Applied Psychology at Northeastern University, and maintains an appointment as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University. Dr. Rizzo is leading a collaboration with Klein Buendel to create a Spanish version of Project STRONG, a web-based dating violence prevention program for parents and middle school boys. The interactive, technolyg-delivered curriculum is grounded in Developmental Assets Theory which asserts that family support, knowledge, values development, and social skills are necessary for healthy development and offset the emergence of risky behavior. Project Strong is funded by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD097126; Dr. Christie Rizzo, Principal Investigator).

Dr. Rizzo received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Southern California. Much of her research focuses on the development and implementation of evidence-based, violence and risk behavior prevention programming for youth, including technology-based initiatives. She particularly focuses on vulnerable youth, such as those involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Dr. Rizzo was previously the Assistant Director of the Juvenile Mental Health Clinic at the Rhode Island Family Court. She now directs the Adolescent Relationships and Risk Behavior Lab at Northeastern University.

Along with Project STRONG, Dr. Rizzo’s current research projects include: 1) Dating Violence Prevention for Juvenile Justice Girls, and 2) Dating Violence Perpetration among Juvenile Justice Youth: The Role of Social, Behavioral, and Ecological Processes.

Collaborator Spotlight:
Barbara McCrady, PhD

Collaborator Spotlight:
Barbara McCrady, PhD

Barbara McCrady, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of New Mexico, a licensed psychologist, a specialist in the treatment of alcohol abuse, and a long-time research collaborator with Dr. W. Gill Woodall, Senior Scientist at Klein Buendel.

The research project that Dr. McCrady and Dr. Woodall are currently working on together is entitled “Smartphone Help for DWI Offenders and their Families: A B-SMART App.” B-SMART is a smartphone app intervention designed to extend the drunken driving cessation initially provided by an interlock ignition device. It involves participation of a concerned family member of DWI (driving while intoxicated) offenders by providing coping skills, communication skills, and strategies to help avoid a subsequent DWI. This study is unique because it involves a family member in supporting the DWI offender to not drink and drive, and the use of smartphone technology to make family support immediate, accessible, and diffusible. Dr. McCrady developed the content for the intervention based on empirically validated couples therapy techniques for those with alcohol use disorders.

In her research, Dr. McCrady has focused on conjoint therapy, approaches that involve the social network, cognitive behavioral therapy, mutual help groups, and therapies for women. In her words: “As a clinical scientist, the overall goal of my work is to conduct research to test innovative treatments and treatment delivery systems for persons affected substance use disorders, and to better understand the mechanisms by which these treatments work. An ultimate goal is to improve clinical practice through the use of empirically supported assessment and treatment approaches.”

Dr. McCrady has published more than 250 refereed papers, books, book chapters, and commentaries. She has also published four treatment manuals and client workbooks with Elizabeth Epstein (a member of the B-SMART Project Expert Advisory Board) on empirically supported treatments for couple’s therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy for alcohol use disorders. She has a second edition of a textbook entitled, Addictions: A Comprehensive Guidebook, published by Oxford University Press.

She is the past Director of the Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions (CASAA) at the University of New Mexico, and is currently the Chair of the Diversity Committee for the Research Society on Alcoholism and the Vice President for the Research Advisory Committee of the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Alberta Kong

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Alberta Kong

Dr. Alberta Kong has been collaborating with Dr. W. Gill Woodall from Klein Buendel for several years on research to prevent HPV – the Human Papillomavirus – by encouraging vaccination for adolescent girls and boys. They are currently working together on a four-year research project entitled “Web App Technology for Boys and Parents: Improving HPV Vaccine Uptake.” The project, which is funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute to Klein Buendel (CA210125; W.G. Woodall, Principal Investigator), is creating and testing a mobile web app to accurately inform parents and adolescent boys about the HPV vaccination and address unique concerns about its safety and effectiveness for boys.

Dr. Kong specializes in adolescent health and infectious disease prevention. She is an Associate Professor with a primary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent Medicine and a secondary appointment in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences Center. She received her Medical Degree from the University of Arizona. Dr. Kong is one of only two Board Certified Adolescent Medicine Specialists in the state of New Mexico. In addition to practicing medicine, she teaches and mentors medical students, pediatric residents, graduate students, and junior faculty members.

According to her UNM bio, “Dr. Kong’s research interests relate to highly prevalent conditions such as sexually-transmitted infections and obesity that commonly affect adolescents. Her research ranges from observational studies to development and testing of interventions targeting behavior change to improve adolescent health outcomes. Regardless of the research design, she utilizes community engagement approaches to ensure that her research has real world applications that can contribute to clinical care of the population she serves.”

Among other research projects, Dr. Kong is the Principal Investigator on a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (HL118734) investigating the efficacy of motivational interviewing approaches for overweight and obesity prevention and treatment through the use of school-based health centers.

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Kimberly Henry

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Kimberly Henry

Kimberly Henry, Ph.D., is a Professor at the Colorado State University Department of Psychology in Fort Collins, Colorado. She received her Ph.D. in biobehavioral health from The Pennsylvania State University.  Her areas of research expertise include school disengagement, adolescent and young adult development, drug use, delinquency and longitudinal methodology. Her focus is on the psychological and social factors that produce or mitigate the health-risking behaviors of adolescents and young adults. Her goal is to develop and test theoretical models in order to understand the complex interactions of risk, promotive, and protective factors that influence risky behaviors and to create and test methods for prevention.

Currently, Dr. Henry is collaborating with Dr. David Buller, Principal Investigator from Klein Buendel, on the research study Likes Pins and Views: Engaging Moms on Teen Indoor Tanning Thru Social Media (CA192652). This study focuses on the use of a social media campaign for mothers on the health and wellness of adolescent daughters. The intervention included theory-based messaging advocating adolescent girls avoid indoor tanning delivered through private Facebook groups. Overall, the research is evaluating the effectiveness of social media indoor tanning messages at decreasing mothers’ permissiveness for daughters to indoor tan. The research is also assessing daughters’ perceptions of their mothers’ permissiveness, prevalence of indoor tanning by mothers and daughters, and mothers’ support for bans on indoor tanning by minors.

In addition to research, Dr. Henry serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, the Journal of Primary Prevention, Adolescent Research Reviews, and Occupational Health Science. She serves as an ad hoc reviewer for multiple journals, and for the William T. Grant Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Hilton Hudson

Collaborator Spotlight:
Dr. Hilton Hudson

Hilton M. Hudson, MD, FACS, of HPC International, Inc. (HPC), is a Co-Investigator on a SBIR Phase II research project with Dr. Valerie Myers (Principal Investigator) from Klein Buendel called, “Pinpoint: Gaming Technology to Engage Adolescent Sickle Cell Patients in Precision Pain Management. The project is funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (MD010746) at the National Institutes of Health. As an African American, a surgeon, a researcher, and the CEO of a publishing company, the effective management and treatment of sickle cell disease is very important to Dr. Hudson. In fact, HPC is the publisher of two preeminent books on sickle cell disease for the public: Hope and Destiny for adults and Hope and Destiny, Jr. for adolescents.

Dr. Hudson is one of less than 40 board-certified, African-American cardiothoracic surgeons currently practicing in the United States. He is a partner of the Institute of Cardiothoracic and Vein Surgery, LLC in Illinois and serves on the Board of Directors for the Healthcare Supplier Diversity Alliance. During his 25+ years of practicing medicine, Dr. Hudson has also served as Chairman of the Board at Heartland Hospital in Munster, Indiana and as the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster, Indiana.

With respect to his research experience and publications, Dr. Hudson is perhaps best known for authoring and publishing the successful book, “The Heart of the Matter: The African American’s Guide to Heart Disease, Heart Treatment, and Heart Wellness,” in 2000, which has subsequently been revised and translated into Spanish with total collective sales of over 75,000 copies.

In addition to practicing medicine, Dr. Hudson is the President and CEO of HPC International, Inc. (formerly the Hilton Publishing Company, Inc.), which he co-founded in 1996 to publish trusted content that can improve the health, education, awareness and wellness of health disparate and other underserved populations. “Around that time,” recalls Dr. Hudson, “I started practicing medicine as a cardiothoracic surgeon and immediately noticed an unfortunate but quite obvious correlation between the socio-economic, racial and gender status of my patients and subpar health. Patient after patient from these community groups lacked the education to teach them how simple changes to their daily habits and health routines could significantly reduce many of their risks for heart issues and other chronic diseases. I spent a lot of time researching what information was available for patients, and discovered a critical gap — a need for new health literature that would be culturally meaningful, evidence-based and impactful for improving the state of health in our health disparate populations. When multiple publishers declined to publish the book for me, I started a new company to do it myself!”

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Dr. Hudson is a graduate of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in English and Math in 1980. He earned his medical degree at Indiana University Medical Center in 1987. Dr. Hudson then completed his Cardiovascular Surgery Extern at Methodist Hospital and his residency for General Surgery at Boston City Hospital and Boston University Hospital before serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1992-1998. During his years in the military, Dr. Hudson completed a fellowship for Cardiothoracic Surgery at Ohio State University in Columbus. That was 1994, just two years before he founded HPC.

In 2014, HPC started a new affiliated company called EMIC LLC (Evidence-based Medical Information Company) to disseminate evidence-based products and e-health programs on technology platforms to facilitate positive health behavior, empower patients with trusted evidence-based information, and improve the quality of healthcare.

Dr. Hudson has received many distinguished awards and honors throughout his career, including:

  • The Sagamore of the Wabash Award for Distinguished Service in Minority Health which he received from the Governor of Indiana in 2000;
  • A Nomination for the Humanitarian Award by the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks in 2003; and
  • The Award for Achievement in Health in the State of Indiana which was presented to him by Governor Mitch Daniels in 2008.