

Gillings School Directory
Kathryn I. Pollak, PhD
Kathryn I. Pollak, PhD
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Health Behavior
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