Amy McQueen’s research is aimed at finding ways to help individuals engage in positive behavioral change and to improve population health by creating systems-level change. She studies the interplay between health behaviors and cognitive, psychosocial and environmental determinants. 

McQueen applies social psychology and health behavior theory to develop, implement and evaluate behavioral interventions to increase preventive behaviors such as cancer screening and smoking cessation for diverse populations. She uses psychometrics and structural equation modeling to develop measures and to examine complex pathways that influence health behaviors and health outcomes. Her interests encompass health disparities, risk perceptions, health communication, patient-physician communication and usability testing. She is a co-director of the School of Public Health’s Health Communication Research Laboratory.  

McQueen completed her PhD in social psychology at the University of Houston, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer prevention and control at the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health, funded by the National Cancer Institute. Before joining WashU School of Public Health, she served as a professor of medicine and the director of Graduate Programs in Applied Health Behavior Research and Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation at WashU Medicine.  

Areas of focus:

  • Behavioral interventions for preventive health 
  • Health communication and education 
  • Measurement development and evaluation 
  • Cancer prevention and control 

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