While technology is a major “driver” of many of society’s comforts, conveniences, and advances, it has engineered regular physical activity and a number of other positive health behaviors out of our daily lives. A key question is: how can we harness technology for “good” in the health promotion/disease prevention area? One potential solution is “community-engaged citizen science” that brings together researchers + public and private organizations + residents themselves in harnessing the potential of IT and mobile devices to solve the health promotion challenge.

Abby King’s research focuses on public health interventions and policy-level approaches to achieve large-scale change in chronic disease prevention and health promotion. Her current research on wellness uses a collaboration platform, applying “citizen science” perspectives to investigate the influences of the built and social environments on health behaviors and outcomes, and applies state-of-the-art communication technologies to address health disparities and expand the reach and generalizability of interventions.