RISE Scholars - Susan Brown, PhD

Susan Brown, PhD
Kaiser Permanente Northern California
RISE Cohort 4

I completed my undergraduate degree at Duke University; doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Boston University; generalist clinical training at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and postdoctoral research fellowship in cardiovascular disease prevention at the Stanford Prevention Research Center in the Stanford School of Medicine. My research focuses on behavior change for chronic disease prevention, particularly among racial and ethnic minority women at high risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. My work examines the reach, implementation, and effectiveness of lifestyle interventions, as well as patient characteristics associated with outcomes. I recently received a K01 career development award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to develop and experimentally test theory-based strategies to increase patient engagement in health system-based lifestyle interventions. I also have strong research interests in clinical trial recruitment and retention.

I am committed to reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in chronic disease through preventive behavior change. As a research scientist within Kaiser Permanente Northern California, I now have exciting opportunities to engage in translational behavioral science-implementing ideas within a large, complex, real-world health care delivery system serving a highly diverse patient population. I have a life-long personal connection to this diverse community and to the premise that patients play a crucial role in their own health and health care. With support from the UCSF-RISE program, I look forward to building partnerships to expand and deepen this work.