Jan Kavookjian, MBA, PhD

Dr. Jan Kavookjian, an Associate Professor at the Harrison School of Pharmacy, Auburn University in Alabama, received her PhD in behavior sciences from Auburn University in 2001 and spent several years on the faculty at West Virginia University before returning to Auburn. She teaches patient counseling and behavior sciences in the professional and graduate programs at Auburn University.

Her research interests include the study of patient outcomes from health care providers talking with patients about comprehensive disease management, particularly Motivational Interviewing (MI) in diabetes/obesity/CVD management, and also cancer prevention. She has also conducted research regarding the use of MI as a strategy for intervention to change provider behaviors (prescribing, patient counseling, monitoring). She has published her diabetes and CVD related research in peer-reviewed journals (Diabetes Educator, Quality of Life Research, Diabetes & Complications, Clinical Therapeutics, and others), and was selected to conduct the AADE ‘Being Active’ systematic review.

She has recently been invited to deliver a national webinar on Motivational Interviewing for AADE, an advanced level MI training at the 2010 AADE annual meeting, a book chapter on MI in the upcoming ACCP Health Promotion and Maintenance VII book, among others. Dr. Kavookjian is frequently invited to give talks and training for Motivational Interviewing (MI) at the national and local level, including the AADE, APhA, AACP, AMGA, ASHP, APA, and ASCP annual meetings. In 2007, she co-founded the Auburn University Motivational Interviewing Training Institute, an intensive two-day skills development training through which over 500 health care providers from all health professions have been trained to use MI to help patients in their health behavior decision-making.