Carissa K. Coleman, Ph.D.

Professional Background

Carissa Coleman, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor and Community Psychologist in the School of Nursing at the University of Kansas. Dr. Coleman received her doctorate from Wichita State University in 2010 and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in translational research the School of Nursing at the University of Kansas in 2013.

After her postdoc, she spent five years working on community research and evaluation at the state and federal level. Completing a Cross-Site Evaluation of the Family Connection Discretionary Grants for the Children’s Bureau (CB) and providing technical assistance for the Trauma-Informed Care Discretionary Grants, ICWA Implementation Partnership Discretionary Grants, Tribal Court Improvement Program Discretionary Grants, and the Title IV-E Waiver Demonstrations. She led evaluations for Kansas Department of Aging and Disabilities Services, a Center for Disease Control Community Transformation Grant and completed Community Needs Assessment for two Kansas counties.

In 2018, she returned to the University of Kansas to assist in scaling up the Changing Talk: Online Training (CHATO) for a national trial.

• PhD, Community Psychology , Wichita State University , Wichita , KS
• Post Doctoral Fellowship, Translational Science, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas

Research

Overview

Dr. Coleman’s research focuses on person-centered care, intervention development, implementation, and testing in multi-site, community settings. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of an ADRC Developmental Grant to examine communication strategies used in diverse dementia care dyads and the Co-Principal Investigator of an R21 examining verbal and nonverbal communication used during home care with people living with dementia to identify caregiver strategies to reduce communication breakdowns. Dr. Coleman is also a co-investigator for the R01 Changing Talk Online Training (CHATO) National Trial where she leads the implementation of a national multi-site pragmatic trial to increase person-centered communication and reduce elderspeak in nursing homes. She is also a co-investigator for the R21 Speeko for Elderspeak: A Self-Monitoring App grant; testing and evaluating the Speeko for Elderspeak App in conjunction with the CHATO training.