Kristen E. Riley, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Kristen E. Riley is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers University-New Brunswick (she/hers). She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a certificate in Health Psychology from the University of Connecticut, and completed a health psychology internship at the Miami VA Medical Center and postdoctoral fellowship in cancer prevention at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Her program of research aims to decrease unhealthy behaviors and increase access to care, with a focus on reducing health disparities. Specifically, she studies how stigma, interprofessional practice, and policies impact patient cognitions (rumination, superstition, mindfulness), and subsequent health behaviors (with a focus on tobacco and sleep). She uses dissemination and implementation science to integrate behavioral medicine into medical settings to get interventions to those who need them most.

Dr. Riley is the director of the Health Psychology Clinic at the Center for Psychological Services at GSAPP, and is the chief of the Health Policy Council at the Society for Health Psychology at the American Psychological Association. She promotes integrated care teamwork and training as a member of the Interprofessional Education Faculty Advisory Council. She is an affiliate member of the Department of Psychology, Center for Alcohol & Substance Use Studies, and the Center for Tobacco Studies at the School of Public Health, is a member of Women’s Health and Psychiatry at RWJBarnabas Health, and is an associate member of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in Cancer Prevention and Control. She is fluent in Spanish.

Dr. Riley is currently working on several lines of research GSAPP, including:

• Integrating behavioral science and behavioral medicine into primary care and medical settings
• Identifying and reducing professional identity threat on interprofessional teams
• Decreasing maternal mortality and morbidity in Black women
• Studying the effects anti-tobacco public health campaigns on lung cancer stigma and smoking cessation