Lecturer
SPH and CHHS Instructor
Phone: (619) 594-1623
Office: HT 109
Email: kemory@sdsu.edu
Education
- PhD – Public Health (Health Behavior), Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health between the University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University (2013)
- MA – Sociology, San Diego State University (2007)
- BA – Sociology, San Diego State University (2005)
Scholarly Areas
- LGBT health
- Health disparities
- Tobacco control and prevention
- Social media and new technologies in health
- International and global health
Biography
Kristen Emory, PhD is a Health Behaviorist (PhD) and Sociologist (MA) with a passion for student engagement, health equity, and social justice. She is currently the Director of San Diego State University’s (SDSU) School of Public Health (SPH) Imperial Valley Campus (IVC) Undergraduate Program. In this role, Dr. Emory leads the establishment and development of a brand-new bachelor’s program targeted at meeting the diverse educational and public health needs of communities (and future students) living in the Imperial Valley, an underserved and low-income community in Imperial and Riverside Counties (California). This emerging program will help address educational and health equity gaps for residents and particularly future students living in the Imperial Valley. Dr. Emory also currently serves as the Director of SDSU SPH Alumni Career Needs Engagement, where she is working with SPH Alumni, the Alumni Association, employers and the multi-institutional collaborative Public Health Career Services Working Group to better understand the unmet needs of SPH Alumni and provide recommendations for future programmatic and curricular updates to better meet the emerging needs of students and the evolving and diverse public health workforce. In addition to her director roles, Dr. Emory teaches multiple courses, including the largest study abroad class at SDSU.
From 2016 to 2021, Dr. Emory served as the Director of the SPH Undergraduate Program. In this role, Dr. Emory led curricular design, including a complete program remodel of the curriculum to bring the SPH from a Health Sciences program to a modern Public Health program. During this time, Dr. Emory supervised undergraduate faculty, led CEPH Accreditation efforts and reporting for the undergraduate program, launched a new Global Campus online undergraduate program, worked on six SPH service committees, served as the primary Academic and Career Advisor and Student Organization Advisor for three student organizations the SPH: all while teaching multiple classes each semester.
Dr. Emory’s favorite place to be is in the classroom and research lab with students. Dr. Emory takes student mentorship and career development very seriously and employs a hands-on community-based approach to student learning both inside and outside of the classroom, engaging students in all her research projects. Dr. Emory’s research interests surround the role intersecting identities play in contributing to and reducing health disparities globally; particularly as they contribute to mental health concerns and unhealthy substance use or abuse. Her current research focuses on the impact of COVID-19 (including vaccine hesitancy and perceived discrimination) on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Plus (LGBTQ+) communities’ stress levels, mental health and corresponding substance use; compared to the general population in the US and Canada.
Publications
A list of published work can be found on PubMed.
