Kimber K. Richter, Ph.D., MPH, NCTTP

Professional Background

Dr. Kimber Richter is Professor of Population Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center and Director of UKanQuit, the tobacco treatment service of the University of Kansas Hospital.

Dr. Richter received her Master of Public Health from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and her PhD in behavioral Psychology from the University of Kansas Department of Human Development and Family Life, now known as the Department of Applied Behavior Sciences. Her research interests include the clinical treatment of tobacco dependence, policy and advocacy related to the treatment of tobacco and other substance use disorders, and implementation of evidence-based practices.

Dr. Richter directs a hospital-based smoking cessation service, UKanQuit, that serves over 2,000 smokers per year. UKanQuit serves as a platform for research, training, and quality improvement efforts. She is co-founder of the University of Kansas Tobacco Treatment Specialist Training program (Faseru, PI). She has served as President of the Kansas Public Health Association, President of the Association of Medical Education and Research on Substance Abuse (AMERSA), National Scientific Advisory Board member for Optum Quitline, and a Scientific Advisory Committee for National Jewish Health to develop a dedicated quitline program for people with mental illnesses. Her professional service includes being a member of editorial boards and serving on a number of NIH and other grant review panels.

• BA, St. John's Col.
• MA, Univ. of Kansas
• MPH, Univ. of Kansas-Medical Ctr.
• PhD, Univ. of Kansas

Research

Overview

Dr. Richter tests the effects of individual and systems-level interventions that are explicitly designed to reverse treatment disparities for rural and underserved minorities. Her research includes clinical trials, surveys, secondary data analysis, and qualitative approaches. She has been funded by the NIH, national, and local foundations and have earned national and local awards for her research and service. She actively mentors junior faculty, post-docs, and students to conduct and publish high-quality public health research.

Dr. Richter is a very active member of a statewide collaboration—the Behavioral Health Tobacco Initiative, headed by NAMI Kansas, to reduce tobacco use among people with mental illness and substance use disorders. Funded by the Kansas Health Foundation, this organization has successfully lobbied the state legislature for statewide expansion Kansas Medicaid benefits for cessation services to be among the most comprehensive in the nation, supported numerous organizations to assess and improve their quality of care, and is currently making mini-grants to treatment providers and consumer run organizations to adopt and implement evidence-based treatment for people living with behavioral health issues.