Faculty and Academic Staff

Lisa Henriksen, PhD, is a senior research scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center (SPRC). She received both her bachelor of arts and doctoral degrees from Stanford University, with doctoral training in communication theory and developmental psychology. Before joining SPRC, Dr. Henriksen was a faculty member at Rutgers University in the School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies, where she earned the university’s highest award for excellence in teaching.

Dr. Henriksen’s work informs policy solutions for disease prevention and health promotion. Her current research focuses on regulation of tobacco products and marketing, which are the world’s leading cause of death and disease. Drawing on expertise in geographic information systems to study environmental influences on health, she studies the retail availability of tobacco products and promotions and their impact on tobacco use by adolescents and adults. Committed to making research tools available to state and local health organizations, Dr. Henriksen’s team developed an electronic survey that every local health department in California uses to monitor retail marketing for tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, and healthy/unhealthy foods. She also conducts consumer perception studies to improve message design for motivating behavior change and policy support.