Dr. Kirk Von Sternberg

Biography

Kirk von Sternberg is a Professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin, where he serves as the associate director of the Health Behavior Research Training Institute. He holds a master's degree in social work from the University of Houston and a Ph.D. in behavioral science from the University of Texas Health Science Center-School of Public Health. With over 20 years of experience, Dr. von Sternberg specializes in designing and implementing large clinical trials that test behavior change interventions based on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) and Motivational Interviewing (MI). He has been the principal investigator responsible for study design and data analysis in numerous NIH and CDC funded randomized controlled intervention trials that address risks associated with alcohol-exposed pregnancies, alcohol consumption, safer sexual practices, STI screening, and cocaine abuse, alongside screening brief interventions for alcohol and drugs in medical settings. His current intervention trial, CHOICES Teen, focuses on preventing alcohol and marijuana-exposed pregnancy among sexually active adolescent women involved in the criminal justice system. His research interests include mechanisms of change and mediation analyses that explore process behavior change constructs predictive of quality profiles related to TTM constructs.

Research Interests