Kelly Rebecca Tan

Dr. Tan’s research interests include cancer, caregiving, biopsychosocial mechanisms of stress response, positive psychology, and social determinants of health. In her current work she uses mixed methods to understand the experiences of caregivers at higher risk for caregiving-related stress and cancer-related financial toxicity. She is also interested in implementation science and theory-based intervention design to develop multi-level sustainable interventions for caregivers of individuals with serious chronic illnesses.

Dr. Tan is a quadruple Tarheel, she earned her Biology BA with a minor in cognitive science, BSN, and PhD. She was a predoctoral fellow on the NIH funded Interventions for Preventing & Managing Chronic Illness T32 (T32NR007091) and was part of the 3rd cohort of the Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation Program at UNC-Ch an integrated BSN-PhD program. Her NIH funded dissertation was a multi-method longitudinal study of allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipient caregivers (F31NR018098). Dr. Tan completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in the Cancer Care Quality Training Program (T32CA116339) where she collaborated on several intervention studies related to improving wellness and support for people with cancer and their caregivers.