Kristen R. Choi, PhD, MS, RN

Kristen Choi, PhD, MS, RN, is a child/adolescent psychiatric nurse and health services researcher. Dr. Choi studies health services and policy approaches to behavioral health, trauma, and violence among children. Her current research projects include studies on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), adverse childhood experiences, the impact of trauma and violence on nurses, and health system factors associated with firearm violence. 

She is a member of the first cohort of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)-funded Stakeholder-Partnered Implementation Research and Innovation Translation (SPIRIT) K12 Program at UCLA. With this career development award, Dr. Choi is studying ASD services at Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) and patient outcomes associated with implementation of California's autism mandate. She is an Adjunct Investigator in the Department of Research & Evaluation at KPSC and an Associate Director of Nursing for the UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program. As a both a clinician and a scientist, Dr. Choi maintains a clinical practice as a registered nurse (RN) at a community psychiatric hospital in Downtown Los Angeles. She addresses child behavioral health from individual, family, system, and policy levels in her research and is committed to a creative, action-oriented program of research that will improve the health of vulnerable children and communities.