Kristie Long Foley, PhD, MS is Chair of the Department of Implementation Science and Vice Dean for Research Strategy & Integration at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. As leader of the first Department of Implementation Science in the U.S., Dr. Foley is responsible for advancing the science of implementation and dissemination and building a team to support and catalyze our academic learning health system. As Vice Dean, she leads research initiatives that foster integration of our academic enterprise across Advocate Health, including programs that accelerate the growth of our research-intensive faculty, foster embedded scholarship, advance Centers and Institutes, and support an expansive and evolving research infrastructure.

Dr. Foley is a public health scientist who uses capacity-building strategies to bridge the gap between research and practice to ensure uptake of evidence-based care. She leads one of seven Implementation Science Centers in Cancer Control and has shepherded more than 20 research projects focused on implementation of best practices in tobacco control and cancer care delivery practice. She has garnered >$12M in extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, American Cancer Society, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others. In addition to her research in the United States, she created research-practitioner teams in Hungary and Romania to generate evidence that led to national clean air legislation, increases in tobacco taxation, expansion of youth tobacco prevention programs, and an increase in smoking cessation services. Her work in Eastern Europe was fostered by a Fulbright Scholar Award to Semmelweis University in Hungary and a Fulbright Specialist Award in Romania. In addition to her research, Dr. Foley received the 2019 Wake Forest University School of Medicine Mentoring Award for the numerous students, clinicians, and faculty she has mentored and sponsored. In 2021, she completed the year-long Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM®) program.

Dr. Foley received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology and rehabilitation counseling from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also completed her doctorate at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in cancer prevention and control at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.