Overview

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 research portfolio include studies on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), adverse childhood experiences, community violence, 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 will be studying ASD services at Kaiser Permanente Southern California and patient outcomes associated with implementation of California's autism mandate. As a both a clinician and a scientist, Dr. Choi maintain 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. 

Faculty Research and Clinical Expertise

Doctoral Dissertation: Service usage typologies among trauma-exposed children: The roles of PTSD and dissociation

Undergraduate Honors Thesis: Trauma-informed care with childhood maltreatment survivors: what do maternity professionals want to learn?

Education

Bachelor of Science in Nursing, University of Michigan, School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, Michigan

PhD, Nursing, University of Michigan, School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Master of Science in Health Policy & Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California

National Clinician Scholars Program, Division of General Internal Medicine & Health Services Research, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

Honors and Awards

2013                Midwest Nursing Research Society, Undergraduate Student Research Scholar Award

2013                University of Michigan School of Nursing Dean’s Research Day, 3rd Place Poster Award

2014                University of Michigan School of Nursing, Mary Reynolds Memorial Award

2014                University of Michigan School of Nursing Dean’s Research Day, 2rd Place Poster Award, Student Poster Category 

2010-2015       University of Michigan, James B. Angell Scholar (8 consecutive terms of all As)

2016                Rackham Conference Travel Grant, University of Michigan

08/2018          Jonas Policy Scholars Program, Maternal & Infant Health Expert Panel, American  Academy of Nursing.

09/2019           Nominee, UCLA Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research

05/2019           Fellow, National Institute of Mental Health, Child Intervention, Prevention, and Services (CHIPS) Research Training Institute

Publications

Choi, K. & Seng, J. S. (2014). Trauma-informed care with childhood maltreatment survivors: what do maternity professionals want to learn? International Journal of Childbirth, 4(3), 191-201.

Choi, K. R. (2014). Forensic nursing philosophy: examining epistemological assumptions about truth and knowledge in the Integrated Practice Model. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 10(4), 243-244.

Choi, K. R., Ragnoni, J. A., Bickmann, J. D., Saarinen, H. A., & Gosselin, A. K. (2015). Health behavior theory for pressure ulcer prevention: A root cause analysis project in critical care nursing. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 31(1), 68-74

Choi, K. R. (2015).  Risk factors for domestic minor sex trafficking in the United States: A literature review. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 11(2), 66-76.

Choi, K. R. & Seng, J. S. (2015). Pilot of a nurse-led, interprofessional in-service training on trauma-informed perinatal care. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 45(11), 515-521.

Choi, K. R., & Seng, J. S. (2016). Predisposing and precipitating factors for dissociation during labor in a cohort study of posttraumatic stress disorder and childbearing outcomes. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health. doi: 10.1111/jmwh.12364

Choi, K. R. (2016).  Complex psychological trauma and self-dysregulation: A theory synthesis for nursing. Research and Theory for Nursing Practice, 30(1), 10-25.

Beck, D., Choi, K. R., Munro-Kramer, M. L., & Lori, J. R. (2016). Human trafficking in Ethiopia: A scoping review to identify gaps in service delivery, research, and policy. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. doi:10.1177/1524838016641670

Choi, K. R., Briggs, E., Seng, J. S., Graham-Bermann, S. A., Munro-Kramer, M. L., & Ford, J. D.  (2017). Service usage typologies in a clinical sample of trauma-exposed adolescents: A latent class analysis. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. DOI: 10.1037/tra0000340

Choi, K. R., Seng, J. S., Briggs-King, E., Munro-Kramer, M. L., Graham-Bermann, S. A., Lee, R. L., & Ford, J. D. (2017). The dissociative subtype of PTSD among adolescents: Co-occurring PTSD, depersonalization/derealization, and other dissociation symptoms. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 56(12), 1062-1072.

Ashwood, S. J., Kataoka, S.H., Eberhart, N. K., Bromley, E., Zima, B. T., Baseman, L., Marti, F. A., Kofner, A., Tang, L., Azhar, G. S., Chamberlin, M., Erickson, B., Choi, K. R., Zhang, L., Miranda, J., Burnam, A. M. (2018). Evaluation of the Mental Health Services Act in Los Angeles County: Implementation and outcomes for key programs. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2018. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2327.html.

Choi, K. R. & Graham-Bermann, S. A. (2018). Developmental considerations for assessment of trauma symptoms in preschoolers: a review of measures and diagnoses. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(11), 3427–3439.

Choi, K. R., Sherbourne, C., Tang, L., Castillo, E., Dixon, E., Jones, A., Chung, B., Eisen, C., & Wells, K. (2018). A comparative effectiveness trial of depression collaborative care: Subanalysis of comorbid anxiety. Western Journal of Nursing Research. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945918800333

Choi, K. R. & Easterlin, M. C. (2018). Intervention models for increasing access to behavioral health services among youth: A systematic review. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics. doi: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000623

Choi, K. R., Ford, J. D., Briggs, E., Munro-Kramer, M. L., Graham-Bermann, S. A., & Seng, J. S. (2019). Relationships between maltreatment, posttraumatic symptomatology, and the dissociative subtype of PTSD among adolescents. Journal Trauma & Dissociation, 1-16.

Choi, K. R., McCreary, M., Rahmanian, S. K., Ford, J. D., Kenan, K., & Zima, B. (2019). Validation of the Traumatic Events Screening Inventory for ACEs. Pediatrics, 143(4), e20182546.

Munro-Kramer, M., Beck, D., Choi, K.R., Singer, R., Gebhard, A., & Carr, B. (2019). Human trafficking victim's service needs and outcomes: An analysis of clinical law data. Journal of Human Trafficking, https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2019.1574476.

Choi, K. R., Omery, A, & Watkins, A. M. (2019). An integrative literature review of the implementation of psychiatric rapid response teams (RRTs) for de-escalating behavioral

Non-Peer Reviewed Journals and Publications

Book Chapters

Taylor, J. & Choi, K. R. (2015). What are the next steps for trauma-informed care in education, research, and policy? In Seng, J. S. & Taylor, J. (Eds.), Trauma-Informed Care in the Perinatal Period: Growing Forward. Edinburgh, UK: Dunedin Academic Press.

Policy Briefs

Ashwood, S. J., Kataoka, S.H., Eberhart, N. K., Bromley, E., Zima, B. T., Baseman, L., Marti, F. A., Kofner, A., Tang, L., Azhar, G. S., Chamberlin, M., Erickson, B., Choi, K. R., Zhang, L., Miranda, J., Burnam, A. M. (2018). The Mental Health Services Act in Los Angeles County: Evaluating program reach and outcomes. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10008.html.

Choi, K. R., Seng, J. S., Briggs-King, E., Munro-Kramer, M. L., Graham-Bermann, S. A., Lee, R. L., & Ford, J. D. (2018). Dissociation and PTSD: What parents should know. National Child Traumatic Stress Network: Data At-A-Glance. Los Angeles, CA and Durham, NC: National Center for Child Traumatic Stress.

Choi, K. R., Seng, J. S., Briggs-King, E., Munro-Kramer, M. L., Graham-Bermann, S. A., Lee, R. L., & Ford, J. D. (2018). Dissociation and PTSD: What providers should know. National Child Traumatic Stress Network: Data At-A-Glance. Los Angeles, CA and Durham, NC: National Center for Child Traumatic Stress.