As a prevention scientist and developmental methodologist, Kelly Rulison uses multiple methodological techniques to study how peer networks shape substance use and related health-risk behaviors. She studies how program developers can build more effective interventions and then promote the diffusion of intervention effects to reach those who did not participate.
Much of her research focuses on substance use and related health-risk behaviors –such as delinquency, suicidal behaviors, and sexual violence—during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Rulison began her faculty career in a joint appointment at University of North Carolina Greensboro as a tenure-track faculty member in public health education (PHE) and as a quantitative methodologist in the Office of Research in the School of Health and Human Sciences.
Over time, she transitioned to a full-time faculty position in public health in order to lead a program of research. While in PHE, she also served as Director of Graduate Studies for three years, overseeing the training of over 60 M.P.H. and Ph.D. students a year.
Rulison earned her Ph.D. in human development and family studies and a master’s degree in applied statistics at Penn State. She is an associate of Penn State’s Consortium to Combat Substance Use.