Kathryn I. Pollak, PhD

Kathryn Pollak is a social psychologist who develops interventions to promote behavior change, including smoking cessation, during teachable moments. Most of her current interventions involve mHealth technology. Dr. Pollak also designs interventions to improve clinician-patient communication. Her primary faculty appointment is as a professor in Community and Family Medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine. She also co-leads the behavioral science focus of Duke Cancer Institute's Cancer Control and Populations Sciences Program.

Teaching Interests

Motivational Interviewing for clinicians

Research Activities

Smoking cessation
Health disparities
Health behavior change
Health communication
Patient-provider communication

Education

PhD, Social Psychology, University of Houston, 1996