Kristen Nishimi, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Psychiatry
School of Medicine

She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of California Berkeley, followed by an MPH at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, a PhD in Population Health Sciences at Harvard University, and a post-doctoral fellowship at UCSF and the San Francisco VA Health Care System.

Her research has focused on understanding the relationships between trauma, mental, and physical health across the lifecourse. She has developed expertise in applying advanced epidemiological methods to observational and clinical data, to identify relationships between adversity and trauma exposure across the life course, with mental, behavioral, and physical health endpoints. Her research seeks to understand the pathways and mechanisms by which trauma, mental, and physical health intertwine, particularly via impacts on systemic inflammation and immune system functioning. Dr. Nishimi is also interested in an assets-based perspective in understanding the manifestation of psychological resilience to trauma, and its potential broad benefit to physical health and chronic disease.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder and risk for hospitalization and death following COVID-19 infection.
  Translational psychiatry 2022 Nishimi K, Neylan TC, Bertenthal D, Dolsen EA, Seal KH, O'Donovan A
• A life course approach to understanding stress exposures and cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults.
  Social science & medicine (1982) 2022 Chen R, Williams DR, Nishimi K, Slopen N, Kubzansky LD, Weuve J
• Identifying correlates of suicide ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional analysis of 148 sociodemographic and pandemic-specific factors.
  Journal of psychiatric research 2022 Dolsen EA, Nishimi K, LeWinn KZ, Byers AL, Tripp P, Woodward E, Khan AJ, Marx BP, Borsari B, Jiha A, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A
• Pre-pandemic resilience to trauma and mental health outcomes during COVID-19.
  Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology 2022 Choi KW, Nishimi K, Jha SC, Sampson L, Hahn J, Kang JH, Koenen KC, Kubzansky LD
• Trauma, psychological distress and markers of systemic inflammation among US women: A longitudinal study.
  Psychoneuroendocrinology 2022 Lawn RB, Murchland AR, Kim Y, Chibnik LB, Tworoger SS, Rimm EB, Sumner JA, Roberts AL, Nishimi KM, Ratanatharathorn AD, Jha SC, Koenen KC, Kubzansky LD
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, and Accelerated Aging: Leukocyte Telomere Length in the Nurses' Health Study II.
  Biological psychiatry global open science 2022 Ratanatharathorn A, Roberts AL, Chibnik LB, Choi KW, De Vivo I, Kim Y, Nishimi K, Rimm EB, Sumner JA, Kubzansky LD, Koenen KC
• Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and timing of menopause and gynecological surgery in the Nurses' Health Study II.
  Journal of psychosomatic research 2022 Nishimi K, Thurston RC, Chibnik LB, Roberts AL, Sumner JA, Lawn RB, Tworoger SS, Kim Y, Koenen KC, Kubzansky LD
• Prior trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
  Journal of psychiatric research 2022 Nishimi K, Borsari B, Tripp P, Jiha A, Dolsen EA, Woolley JD, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A
• Association of Psychiatric Disorders With Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 Breakthrough Infection Among Vaccinated Adults.
  JAMA network open 2022 Nishimi K, Neylan TC, Bertenthal D, Seal KH, O'Donovan A
• Psychological resilience and diurnal salivary cortisol in young adulthood.
  Psychoneuroendocrinology 2022 Nishimi K, Koenen KC, Coull BA, Segerstrom SC, Austin SB, Kubzansky LD
• Worse sleep, worsening post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Poor sleep quality associated with increases in PTSD symptoms amongst those experiencing high threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  Journal of sleep research 2022 Straus LD, Dolsen EA, Nishimi K, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A
• Sexual Violence and Risk of Hypertension in Women in the Nurses' Health Study II: A 7-Year Prospective Analysis.
  Journal of the American Heart Association 2022 Lawn RB, Nishimi KM, Sumner JA, Chibnik LB, Roberts AL, Kubzansky LD, Rich-Edwards JW, Koenen KC, Thurston RC
• Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms associated with protective and risky behaviors for coronavirus disease 2019.
  Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association 2022 Nishimi K, Borsari B, Marx BP, Tripp P, Woodward E, Rosen RC, Cohen BE, Maven D, Jiha A, Woolley JD, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A
• Clusters of COVID-19 protective and risky behaviors and their associations with pandemic, socio-demographic, and mental health factors in the United States.
  Preventive medicine reports 2021 Nishimi K, Borsari B, Marx BP, Rosen RC, Cohen BE, Woodward E, Maven D, Tripp P, Jiha A, Woolley JD, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A
• Trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Treatment Among Middle-Aged and Older Women in the Nurses' Health Study II.
  The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry 2021 Sampson L, Jha SC, Roberts AL, Lawn RB, Nishimi KM, Ratanatharathorn A, Sumner JA, Kang JH, Kubzansky LD, Rimm EB, Koenen KC
• Master-planned communities in the United States as novel contexts for individual and population-level research.
  Preventive medicine 2021 Nishimi K, Glickman E, Smith K, Ben-Joseph E, Carson S, Vranceanu AM, Dunn EC
• Association of Psychological Resilience With Healthy Lifestyle and Body Weight in Young Adulthood.
  The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine 2021 Nishimi KM, Koenen KC, Coull BA, Kubzansky LD
• Psychological resilience predicting cardiometabolic conditions in adulthood in the Midlife in the United States Study.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2021 Nishimi KM, Koenen KC, Coull BA, Chen R, Kubzansky LD
• COVID-19 related moral injury: Associations with pandemic-related perceived threat and risky and protective behaviors.
  Journal of psychiatric research 2021 Khan AJ, Nishimi K, Tripp P, Maven D, Jiha A, Woodward E, Inslicht S, Richards A, Neylan TC, Maguen S, O'Donovan A
• Association between psychological resilience and cognitive function in older adults: effect modification by inflammatory status.
  GeroScience 2021 Jung SJ, Lee GB, Nishimi K, Chibnik L, Koenen KC, Kim HC
• Associations of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder with aldosterone in women.
  Psychoneuroendocrinology 2021 Nishimi K, Adler GK, Roberts AL, Sumner JA, Jung SJ, Chen Q, Tworoger S, Koenen KC, Kubzansky LD
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Likelihood of Hormone Therapy Use among Women in the Nurses' Health Study II: A 26-Year Prospective Analysis.
  Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology 2020 Lawn RB, Nishimi KM, Kim Y, Jung SJ, Roberts AL, Sumner JA, Thurston RC, Chibnik LB, Rimm EB, Ratanatharathorn AD, Jha SC, Koenen KC, Tworoger SS, Kubzansky LD
• Compounding Stress: Childhood Adversity as a Risk Factor for Adulthood Trauma Exposure in the Health and Retirement Study.
  Journal of traumatic stress 2020 Bürgin D, Boonmann C, Schmeck K, Schmid M, Tripp P, Nishimi K, O'Donovan A
• The mental health effects of pet death during childhood: is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?
  European child & adolescent psychiatry 2020 Crawford KM, Zhu Y, Davis KA, Ernst S, Jacobsson K, Nishimi K, Smith ADAC, Dunn EC
• An Exposure-Wide and Mendelian Randomization Approach to Identifying Modifiable Factors for the Prevention of Depression.
  The American journal of psychiatry 2020 Choi KW, Stein MB, Nishimi KM, Ge T, Coleman JRI, Chen CY, Ratanatharathorn A, Zheutlin AB, Dunn EC, 23andMe Research Team, Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics …
• Features of Childhood Maltreatment and Resilience Capacity in Adulthood: Results from a Large Community-Based Sample.
  Journal of traumatic stress 2020 Nishimi K, Choi KW, Davis KA, Powers A, Bradley B, Dunn EC
• Measures of adult psychological resilience following early-life adversity: how congruent are different measures?
  Psychological medicine 2020 Nishimi K, Choi KW, Cerutti J, Powers A, Bradley B, Dunn EC
• Posttraumatic stress disorder and changes in diet quality over 20 years among US women.
  Psychological medicine 2019 Kim Y, Roberts AL, Rimm EB, Chibnik LB, Tworoger SS, Nishimi KM, Sumner JA, Koenen KC, Kubzansky LD
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Inflammation: Untangling Issues of Bidirectionality.
  Biological psychiatry 2019 Sumner JA, Nishimi KM, Koenen KC, Roberts AL, Kubzansky LD
• Nursing education partnerships between western high-income universities and non-governmental agencies and low-income local agencies: A scoping review of the literature.
  Journal of professional nursing : official journal of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing 2019 Nishimi K, Street NW
• Time-Dependent Effects of Exposure to Physical and Sexual Violence on Psychopathology Symptoms in Late Childhood: In Search of Sensitive Periods in Development.
  Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2019 Dunn EC, Nishimi K, Neumann A, Renaud A, Cecil CAM, Susser ES, Tiemeier H
• Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and television viewing patterns in the Nurses' Health Study II: A longitudinal analysis.
  PloS one 2019 Jung SJ, Winning A, Roberts AL, Nishimi K, Chen Q, Gilsanz P, Sumner JA, Fernandez CA, Rimm EB, Kubzansky LD, Koenen KC
• Posttraumatic stress disorder and incidence of thyroid dysfunction in women.
  Psychological medicine 2018 Jung SJ, Kang JH, Roberts AL, Nishimi K, Chen Q, Sumner JA, Kubzansky L, Koenen KC
• Developmental timing of trauma exposure and emotion dysregulation in adulthood: Are there sensitive periods when trauma is most harmful?
  Journal of affective disorders 2017 Dunn EC, Nishimi K, Gomez SH, Powers A, Bradley B
• Is developmental timing of trauma exposure associated with depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adulthood?
  Journal of psychiatric research 2016 Dunn EC, Nishimi K, Powers A, Bradley B
• Elevated risk for autoimmune disorders in iraq and afghanistan veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
  Biological psychiatry 2014 O'Donovan A, Cohen BE, Seal KH, Bertenthal D, Margaretten M, Nishimi K, Neylan TC