Kelli Komro
Professor
Faculty, Behavioral/Social/Health Educ
Jointly Appointed, Epidemiology

Professor Komro is a social and behavioral epidemiologist focused on promoting child and adolescent health and reducing health disparities driven by racial and economic inequities. For over 25 years, she has led NIH-funded group-randomized trials to study family, school, community, and policy solutions to protect youth from risks associated with alcohol and drug use. She has also led legal epidemiology research, including natural experiments, to study health effects of state laws related to family economic security. NIH has continually funded her research since the 1990s and she has published in the leading public health, prevention science, preventive medicine, addiction and health behavior journals. Prof Komro's research has been highlighted by the National Institutes of Health and National Academies of Sciences.
Her meaningful and humbling experiences partnering with many diverse families, schools, and communities have fueled her passion for addressing fundamental determinants of health. She is excited to share her knowledge, skills and passion with those dedicated to finding solutions through innovation and strong science to inform health-promoting community and policy action.
Prof Komro served as BSHES’s Director of Graduate Studies from 2016-2019 and has been recognized for her teaching and mentoring as recipient of awards from the American Public Health Association; Society for Prevention Research; Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences at Emory University; and the College of Medicine at the University of Florida. She is a member of Delta Omega Society, the honorary public health society.
She has held academic positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Florida, where she served as Associate Director of the Institute for Child Health Policy. She is a graduate of the Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota.
Contact Information
1518 Clifton Road, GCR 564
Atlanta , GA 30322
1518-002-5AA
Email: kkomro@emory.edu
Areas of Interest
- Adolescent Health/Child Health
- Behavior and Health
- Community Based Research
- Epidemiology
- Group-Randomized Trials
- Health Disparities
- Health Outcomes
- Health Promotion
- Maternal and Child Health
- Public Health Policy
- Social Epidemiology
- Time-Series Field Experiments
Affiliations & Activities
For complete updated publication list see:
Publications
- Komro, K.A., 2018, 25 Years of complex intervention trials: Reflections on lived and scientific experiences, Research on Social Work Practice, 28, 523-531
- Komro, K.A., Lang, D.L., Walker, E.R., & Harper, P.D. , 2018, Integrating structural determinants into MPH training of health promotion professionals, American Journal of Public Health, 108, 477-479
- Komro, K.A., 2018, Preventing risk for “deaths of despair” among American Indian youth: Unanswered questions for future research, American Journal of Public Health, 108, 971-973
- Van Dyke, M.E., Komro, K.A., Shah, M.P., Livingston, M.D. & Kramer, M.R. , 2018, State-level minimum wage and heart disease death rates in the United States, 1980-2015: A novel application of marginal structural modeling, Preventive Medicine, 112, 97-103
- Wagenaar, A.C., Livingston, M.D., Pettigrew, D.W., Kominsky, T.K., & Komro, K.A., 2017, Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA): Secondary analyses of an RCT showing effects of community organizing on alcohol acquisition by youth in the Cherokee Nation, Addiction, 113, 647-655
- Livingston, M.D., Komro, K.A., Wagenaar, A.C., Kominsky, T.K., Pettigrew, D.W., & Garrett, B.A. , 2017, Effects of alcohol interventions on other drug use in the Cherokee Nation, American Journal of Public Health, 108, 259-261
- Markowitz, S., Komro, K.A., Livingston, M.D., Lenhart, O., & Wagenaar, A.C. , 2017, Effects of state-level Earned Income Tax Credit laws in the U.S. on maternal health behaviors and infant health outcomes., Social Science & Medicine, 194, 67-75
- Spencer, R.A., Komro, K.A., 2017, Family economic security policies and child and family health, Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 20, 45-63
- Komro, K.A., Livingston, M.D., Wagenaar, A.C., Kominsky, T.K., Pettigrew, D.W., Garrett, B.A., & the Cherokee Nation Prevention Trial , 2017, Multi-level prevention trial of alcohol use among American Indian and White high school students in the Cherokee Nation, American Journal of Public Health, 107, 453-459
- Langford, R., Bonell, C., Komro, K., Murphy, S., Magnus, D., Waters, E., Gibbs, L. , 2017, The Health Promoting Schools framework: Known unknowns and an agenda for future research, Health Education and Behavior, ,
- Komro, K.A., Livingston, M.D., Markowitz, S. & Wagenaar, A.C., 2016, The effect of an increased minimum wage on infant mortality and birth weight, American Journal of Public Health, 106, 1514-1516