Michaela Kiernan
Academic Appointments
- Senior Research Scientist (PI Waiver), Medicine - Stanford Prevention Research Center
Key Documents
Contact Information
- Contact Information
Personal Information Email
Professional Overview
Administrative Appointments
- Member, University Committee on Postdoctoral Scholars (2009 - present)
Honors and Awards
- Recognition Award for Extraordinary Service for the Advancement of Postdoctoral Fellows, Stanford University Postdoctoral Association (2012)
- Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring Award, Stanford University Postdoctoral Association (2009)
- Outstanding Leadership Award, Office of Community Health, Stanford University School of Medicine (2007)
- Divisional Teaching Award, Stanford Prevention Research Center/Department of Medicine (2002, 2007)
- Fellow, North American Association for the Study of Obesity (2001-present)
- First Independent Research Support and Transition Award (FIRST), National Insitutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1998-2004)
Scientific Focus
Current Research Interests
For the past 15 years, Dr. Kiernan has conducted research on behavioral weight management at the Stanford Prevention Research Center (SPRC), a Division of the Stanford University Department of Medicine. SPRC is multidisciplinary, focused on research and teaching, and dedicated to the improvement of health through the prevention and effective management of chronic disease influenced by lifestyle behaviors via randomized clinical trials, community intervention studies, and population-based surveys among diverse samples of all ages, ethnic groups, and social strata living in northern Californian communities.
Her research interests include: (1) testing tailored behavioral interventions that promote long-term lifestyle changes and weight management among subgroups at risk; and (2) developing methodological and statistical approaches that improve the design, delivery, and analysis of randomized clinical trials. The latter includes using risk classification methods to better identify subgroups at risk, improving recruitment of ethnic minorities into clinical trials, and clarifying approaches for testing the role of moderators and mediators.
From 2001-2007, Dr. Kiernan was the Research Director of the Scholarly Concentration in Community Health at the Stanford University School of Medicine in which she advised 45+ medical students who conducted individual research projects in collaboration with local and international community health partnerships using mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) approaches. In 2007, she returned to her primary focus on obesity research, including as PI of the Fresh Start trial (R01 CA112594) designed to test whether learning a set of novel stability skills first (i.e., before losing weight) promotes better long-term maintenance of weight loss than traditional maintenance approaches.
Clinical Trials
- Not Recruiting Behavioral Strategies for Weight Management
- Not Recruiting Promoting Healthy Weight With 'Stability Skills First'
- Not Recruiting Promoting Long-term Behavior Change to Reduce CVD Risk
- Recruiting Personal Genomics for Preventive Cardiology
Publications
- Promoting healthy weight with "stability skills first": a randomized trial. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2013; (2): 336-46
- The Stanford Leisure-Time Activity Categorical Item (L-Cat): a single categorical item sensitive to physical activity changes in overweight/obese women. Int J Obes (Lond). 2013
- Social support for healthy behaviors: scale psychometrics and prediction of weight loss among women in a behavioral program. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012; (4): 756-64
- Innovative techniques to address retention in a behavioral weight-loss trial. Health Educ Res. 2005; (4): 439-47
- Minority recruitment into clinical trials: experimental findings and practical implications. Contemp Clin Trials. 2012; (4): 620-3
- Randomized trial of personal genomics for preventive cardiology: design and challenges. Circ Cardiovasc Genet. 2012; (3): 368-76
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