Kelly Aschbrenner, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College

Kelly Aschbrenner, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.  Her research focuses on social processes that influence health behavior change addressing obesity and smoking in people with serious mental illness.  She is particularly interested in leveraging technology to facilitate social support for healthy eating, exercise, and smoking cessation in peer and family networks.  Dr. Aschbrenner recently completed a K12 career development award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to develop and pilot test a dyadic intervention to increase partner support for health behavior change among individuals with serious mental illness enrolled in a lifestyle intervention.  She is the Principal Investigator of a pilot study using basic social network science data to inform the development of interventions to promote smoking cessation in people with mental illness.  She is the Co-Principal Investigator of a mixed methods study funded the Centers for Disease Control exploring long-term outcomes among participants enrolled in a statewide health promotion program at community mental health centers.  Prior to joining the Dartmouth faculty, Dr. Aschbrenner completed doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work and postdoctoral training in health services research at Brown University.