ResearchOur PeopleStephanie L. Fitzpatrick, PhD

Stephanie L. Fitzpatrick, PhD

Meet Stephanie Fitzpatrick

For Stephanie Fitzpatrick, research is a personal endeavor. When she began counseling people with obesity to make lifestyle and behavior changes, she realized that changes were needed in her own life, too. Her personal journey continues to inform her scientific work.

Stephanie L. Fitzpatrick, PhD, is a clinical health psychologist whose research focuses on embedding behavioral interventions for obesity and chronic disease management in primary care and community-based settings. She has expertise in development, implementation, and analysis of behavioral interventions, including use of advanced statistical modeling and structural equation modeling.

Dr. Fitzpatrick was the principal investigator on a National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK)-funded R21 study that involved applying latent class analysis to data from two multi-site behavioral intervention trials (PREMIER and Weight Loss Maintenance) that CHR was part of in order to identify individuals who successfully maintained health behavior changes for a year or more and to establish demographic and baseline psychosocial predictors of behavior change maintenance. She recently completed an NIDDK-funded R34 randomized pilot trial (Bridge to Health/ Puente a la Salud) to test the feasibility of a community health worker-led intervention to address diabetes self-management and social needs among racially and ethnically minoritized and low-income patients.

Additionally, Dr. Fitzpatrick was the co-principal investigator on an NIDDK-funded R01 to evaluate the implementation of the Diabetes Prevention Program at Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW).  As the social health strategy research liaison, she works closely with KPNW’s Community Health team to help implement and evaluate social health strategies and social health practice initiatives to advance health equity. Dr. Fitzpatrick is also a past member of the Social Needs Network for Evaluation and Translation (SONNET) and the National Institutes of Health Lifestyle Change and Behavioral Health Study Section and is a current standing member of the Oregon Health Authority’s Metrics & Scoring Committee and President-Elect of the Society for Health Psychology (American Psychological Association’s Division 38).

After earning her PhD in clinical psychology with a specialization in health psychology from the University of Miami, Dr. Fitzpatrick completed a one-year health psychology internship in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Rush University Medical Center and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of General Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. From 2013-2016, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Rush University Medical Center.

Selected Current Studies

  • Effects of DASH Groceries on Blood Pressure in Black Residents of Urban Food Deserts (NIMHD)

Selected Publications

  • Hill-Briggs F, Fitzpatrick SL. Overview of social determinants of health in the development of diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2023 Sep 1;46(9):1590-1598. doi: 10.2337/dci23-0001. PMID: 37354331.
  • Turkson-Ocran RN, Cluett JL, Fitzpatrick SL, et al. Rationale and design of the groceries for Black residents of Boston to stop hypertension among adults without treated hypertension (GoFresh) Trial. Am J Hypertens. 2023;36(5):256-263. doi: 10.1093/ajh/hpad008. PMID: 37061794.
  • Coleman KJ, Wellman R, Fitzpatrick SL, et al., PCORnet Bariatric Study Collaborative. Comparative safety and effectiveness of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy for weight loss and type 2 diabetes across race and ethnicity in the PCORnet Bariatric Study Cohort. JAMA Surg. 2022;157(10):897-906. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2022.3714. PMID: 36044239; PMCID: PMC9434478.
  • Fitzpatrick SL, Mayhew M, Rawlings AM, et al. Evaluating the implementation of a digital Diabetes Prevention Program in an integrated health care delivery system among older adults: Results of a natural experiment. Clin Diabetes. 2022;40(3):345-353. doi: 10.2337/cd21-0114. PMID: 35983414; PMCID: PMC9331625.
  • Fitzpatrick SL, Papajorgji-Taylor D, Schneider JL, et al. Bridge to Health/Puente a la Salud: a pilot randomized trial to address diabetes self-management and social needs among high-risk patients. Transl Behav Med. 2022;12(7):783-792. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibac016. PMID: 35849138; PMCID: PMC9291384.
  • Fitzpatrick SL, Banegas MP, Kimes TM, Papajorgji-Taylor D, Fuoco MJ.Prevalence of unmet basic needs and association with diabetes control and care utilization among insured persons with diabetes. Popul Health Manag. 2021;24(4):463-469. doi: 10.1089/pop.2020.0236. Epub 2021 Feb 3. PMID: 3353500.

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