Kitty Corbett

Professor

Director, Undergraduate Programs

Biography: 

Dr. Corbett is a medical anthropologist whose research has emphasized the application of behavioural and social science to public health communication, participatory community-based health promotion with diverse and vulnerable populations, and quality improvement within healthcare. She enjoys working on teams that take on major public health problems. Her approach is very much multi-methodological, reflecting a multi-disciplinary, social ecological perspective.

After a position from 1986 to 1991 as a research scientist with Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California, Dr. Corbett moved to the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (UCHSC), where she was a professor in both the Health and Behavioral Sciences Program and the Anthropology Department. She joined Simon Fraser University in 2005.

Research Interests: 

Dr. Corbett’s areas of expertise include behavioural and organizational change, health communication, health promotion, intervention and evaluation research, and quality improvement. She is an advocate for participatory research with and high quality service to diverse communities and underserved populations. Topical areas of special interest include the prevention and control of tobacco use, STIs and HIV/AIDS, and antibiotic resistance. She has been a Fulbright Scholar at Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health (2006) and at the Graduate Institute of Public Health at Taiwan National University (1997-8). She has also worked in Peru, Guatemala, Taiwan, Russia, and Mongolia. In North America she has had a leadership role on various large scale projects including: NCI’s multi-site, randomized Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (COMMIT); US CDC’s National Network for STD/HIV Prevention Training Centers (NNPTC); and the Spanish language piece of US CDC’s Get Smart antibiotics media campaign. She has conducted STI/HIV needs assessments for rural Colorado, the whole state, and the region. She directed the design and intervention team for the Minimizing Antibiotic Use in Colorado (MARC) Project (2001-2005), a media-based intervention employing social marketing and the Diffusion of Innovation model. She worked on a four-state project to improve pneumonia care in Veterans Administration Nursing Homes. She and colleagues at Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health are currently building a research program addressing the appropriate use of prescription medicines.

Teaching Interests: 

Dr. Corbett’s teaching has emphasized theory, methods, and anthropologically informed perspectives in health promotion, disease prevention, health communication, quality in care of underserved populations, and other areas of public and population health. She is especially interested in teaching about theory and methods of change, as well as training students in research design, methodology, and evaluation.

Publications and Activities