Katherine Karriker-Jaffe

Katherine Karriker-Jaffe is an expert in behavioral health, particularly alcohol and other substance use disorders. As Senior Director, Center for Health Behavior & Implementation Science, she conducts research on alcohol use and mental health. She is skilled in survey research methods and longitudinal and multilevel modeling.

Dr. Karriker-Jaffe's current projects include an alcohol use disorder treatment simulation modeling study focused on improving access to alcohol services across the urban-rural continuum and an epidemiological study of alcohol and drug harms to others. She also contributes to studies of substance use and mental health among adults in San Diego County, California.

Dr. Karriker-Jaffe joined RTI in 2020. Her previous experience includes conducting the 2015 and 2020 U.S. National Alcohol Surveys and the 2015 U.S. National Alcohol’s Harm to Others Survey. Her recent multilevel studies have examined alcohol control policies, neighborhood factors, peer networks, and family influences on alcohol outcomes including alcohol use patterns, alcohol use disorder, recovery, and secondhand harms from other people’s drinking.

Dr. Karriker-Jaffe is a member of the Research Society on Alcohol, the Kettil Bruun Society, and the American Public Health Association. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley.