Current Research and Scholarly Interests
Dr. Kiernan’s methodological research focuses on strategies to improve the design, delivery, and analysis of randomized trials. Innovative strategies include integrating motivational interviewing techniques into interactive orientation sessions held prior to randomization to enhance participant recruitment and retention over time as well as experimentally testing and optimizing low-cost, broad-reach, digital strategies.
Dr. Kiernan's prior intervention research challenged traditional approaches to the maintenance of lifestyle behaviors. Her intervention trials identified a novel set of ‘stability skills’ for long-term weight-loss maintenance that explicitly optimized satisfaction of engaging in lifestyle behaviors thus promoting subsequent adherence and long-term success.
Dr. Kiernan currently directs the R01 Countdown Program for the Stanford University School of Medicine Office of Faculty Development and Diversity. This intensive grant writing program for junior faculty has generated over $173M in NIH funding across 14 different NIH Institutes to date. R01 Countdown handouts are available online to Stanford investigators and beyond: https://purl.stanford.edu/yy394gb6954.
Dr. Kiernan teaches academic courses, skills workshops, and invited lectures on research methods, grant writing, and scientific writing at the Stanford University School of Medicine as well as numerous academic institutions and conferences across the country to support faculty investigators in a breadth of scientific disciplines.
