Staff: Kara L. Hall, Ph.D.

Kara L. Hall

Kara L. Hall, Ph.D.

(she/her/hers)
Program Director
Organization: Contact:
hallka@mail.nih.gov
240-276-6831

Kara L. Hall, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist, Director of the Science of Team Science (SciTS), and Director of the Theories Initiative in the Health Behaviors Research Branch (HBRB) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). During her career, Dr. Hall has conducted and championed behavioral and social science (BSS) research in areas spanning health behavior theory, systems science, health promotion and disease prevention interventions, implementation science, and emerging cancer-related areas, such as sleep and circadian function and the intersection of climate change, behavior change, and health.

At NCI, Dr. Hall aims to advance BSS by fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations with researchers from across the biomedical community, and beyond. To this end, Dr. Hall has conducted numerous studies and developed new metrics, measures, and models for understanding, evaluating, and supporting transdisciplinary research, collaboration, and training. She helped launch the SciTS field with key efforts such as co-chairing the field's first conference in 2006 and co-editing the associated special supplement entitled, The Science of Team Science: Assessing the Value of Transdisciplinary Research in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (2008). She has served leadership roles for the Annual International SciTS Conference since its inception in 2010 and as a founding board member of the International Network for the Science of Team Science (INSciTS) and the Global Alliance for inter- and transdisciplinarity (ITD-Alliance). Dr. Hall served as a member of The National Academies Committee on the Science of Team Science (2012-15) with the resulting report, Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science, highlighted as the third- most downloaded National Academies Press report in 2015. She has also developed practical resources, including NCI's Team Science Toolkit and Strategies for Team Science Success: Handbook of Evidence-Based Principles for Cross-Disciplinary Science and Practical Lessons Learned from Health Researchers (2019).

Dr. Hall earned her master's degree in psychology (clinical) and doctorate degree in psychology (experimental) from the University of Rhode Island (URI), with specializations in neuropsychology and behavioral science. Dr. Hall was awarded fellowships from the University of Rhode Island, American Cancer Society, and National Cancer Institute and is a graduate of the NCI Senior Executive Enrichment & Development Program and the NIH Senior Leadership Program.

Dr. Hall has provided leadership for more than 40 scientific meetings/workshops, served as a member of 20 external advisory committees/workgroups, authored more than 50 publications, and presented nearly 200 talks, including dozens of keynote lectures. She is a recipient of more than 30 awards and honors from organizations such as the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Notably, Dr. Hall received the Science of Team Science Recognition Award for her vision, dedication, and leadership in helping to establish and continue to advance the Science of Team Science field (2017) and was awarded the American Psychological Association's Research Service Commendation for outstanding contributions to psychological science in the advancement of interdisciplinary team science (2021).



Current and/or past BRP mentors include Richard Moser.

Current and/or past BRP mentees include Amanda Vogel, Rebecca Ferrer and Elise Rice.


Research Areas

  • Science of team science
  • Health behavior theory
  • Implementation science
  • System science approaches
  • Research methods
  • Intervention development
  • Sleep
  • Climate change

Selected Publications and Presentations

To request edits to this profile, please contact us at ncidccpsbrpadvances@mail.nih.gov.