Nikki Hawkins PhD

Nikki Hawkins is a social scientist with more than fifteen years of research experience in applied health psychology. As a Behavioral Scientist in the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, and previously in Cancer Prevention and Control, at the CDC, she conducts and translates research related to identifying and measuring the psychosocial and systems-level factors that influence preventive health behavior and screening, as well as treatment and follow-up among those with chronic disease.

Dr. Hawkins has co-authored over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles on preventive health behavior, care delivery, health literacy, and psychosocial outcomes associated with chronic disease. She serves as a reviewer for numerous clinical, behavioral, and health services journals and serves as Associate Editor for the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Hawkins received the CDC's Early Career Award in Behavioral and Social Sciences and she serves as a scientific collaborator on several large public health campaigns. She has expertise in care transitions and chronic disease self-management support. She was the former executive chair representing CDC for the Biennial Cancer Survivorship Research Conference. Dr. Hawkins has specialized expertise in research methodology, including survey design, data analysis, qualitative, evaluation, translation, and intervention research. Topical areas of expertise include preventive health behavior, health promotion, health literacy, disparities, translating research to practice, follow-up care and surveillance in cancer survivorship and other chronic illnesses, care transitions, psychosocial outcomes, social and economic impact of disease, resilience and thriving after chronic disease, end of life care and decision-making, dissemination of practice guidelines, conducting research through cancer registries, and interdisciplinary collaboration in research and practice.