Lori Palen

Lori Palen, PhD, helps national, state, and local clients learn about their efforts to promote the healthy development of young people. This includes process evaluations to inform quality improvement efforts and outcome evaluations to demonstrate impact on important public health and social issues.

Dr. Palen’s areas of expertise include the prevention of adolescent substance use, sexual risk behavior, and dating violence, and the promotion of positive youth development. She also has experience with a variety of intervention types, including classroom-based prevention programs, environmental change strategies, and initiatives targeting community prevention systems.

Dr. Palen is experienced in all steps of the evaluation process, from study design through publication and application of results. She is particularly interested in promoting effective research communication. She has shared her own findings with scientific, practitioner, and general audiences via scientific journals, professional conferences, book chapters, technical reports, and radio. Dr. Palen also provides training and technical assistance, both internally and externally, on research communication and other steps of the evaluation process.