Faculty Profiles

Kristen G. Anderson, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at Reed College and the principal investigator of the Adolescent Health and Women’s Health Research Programs. Her term as vice president of the Research Society on Alcohol begins in July 2024. Her area of expertise is the developmental psychopathology of addictive behaviors from late childhood through emerging adulthood with a special emphasis on gender and gender diversity. Dr. Anderson specializes in alcohol and drug use decision-making in social contexts using simulations and social-cognitive models of alcohol and cannabis use. Dr. Anderson has published extensively and received research funding from the National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the ABMRF: The Alcohol Research Foundation. Dr. Anderson also served as the principal investigator of the Portland site of Project Options, a national, multisite field trial of a school-based alcohol and drug prevention program in the United States funded by NIAAA. At the University of Amsterdam, she served as a Fulbright Scholar (2013-2014), the academic director of the Summer Institute on Addictions (2016-2020), and currently codirects the Mental Health, Youth, and Society summer program (2021-). A licensed psychologist, Dr. Anderson received her Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Prior to joining the faculty at Reed, she was a research scientist and clinical faculty member in the UCSD Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry. Dr. Anderson attended Simon’s Rock College and Drew University as an undergraduate and also holds a M.Ed. in Special Education from American International College. For more information, please see her websites listed below.

Adolescent Health Research Program
Women’s Health Research Program
Psychology Department webpage