Kara has over a decade of experience in using quantitative methods like survey and experimental designs to evaluate communication messaging to detect changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. She has used these skills to lead the analysis of social media data, survey data, and grant performance measures for various projects including the General Social Survey (GSS) and How Right Now. She has applied these skills to a variety of topic areas including cancer and genetic risk communication, women’s sexual health, vaccination, and COVID-related topics. Additionally, Kara has experience in the creation of strategic communication content targeted towards a variety of audiences, with strong interest in applying plain language principles to health communication efforts.

Currently, Kara leads an annual evaluation of the GSS, synthesizing data from social media, web analytics, and citation metrics to illustrate how the GSS is being used by academics and the public. Additionally, she leads efforts to evaluate programs focused on the capacity and performance of the U.S. governmental public health system. For the All of Us Participant & Partner Services Center, Kara acts as a product owner for the communications workstream, supporting NIH in creating and sending communications to All of Us participants and providing support for the collection and analysis of reach and impact metrics.  Previously, she led the analysis of survey data for the How Right Now project. 

Kara served as a post-doctoral health communication fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research Branch (BBRB) and Cancer Imaging Program (CIP), leading the design and evaluation of multiple, concurrent communication efforts. Prior to her time at NCI, Kara led research efforts related to narrative communication effects on attitudes towards various health topics, including women’s reproductive health and cancer and genetic risk information. Additionally, she taught undergraduate courses related to mass media, interpersonal communication, public relations writing, and advertising.