Megan Kirk Chang, PhD
Contact information
Websites
-
Insight Timer
The Wisdom of Our Wounds: Healing from Trauma
-
Insight Timer
Teacher Profile
Colleges
Megan Kirk Chang
BA, MA, PG Dip, PhD
Senior Researcher, Health Behaviours Team
- Oxford Health BRC Preventing Multiple Morbidities Theme
- Health Behaviours Team
Megan Kirk Chang is a Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. Megan holds a PhD in Kinesiology and Health Sciences and an Advanced Doctoral Diploma in Health Psychology from York University, Toronto, Canada. She held a Postdoctoral Associate position at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence in the Yale School of Medicine. With two decades of experience in academia and healthcare settings (e.g., CAMH, Toronto General Hospital) in Canada, the USA, and now the UK, Megan excels in leading complex multi-site, multidisciplinary NIH-registered clinical trials utilising mobile health applications and wearable technology to optimize clinician and patient outcomes. Her research interests include enhancing mental and physical health through digital health and remote self-monitoring, identifying psychophysiological biomarkers, and evaluating treatment effects via autonomic nervous system function.
As a Senior Researcher on the Oxford Health BRC Preventing Multiple Morbidities theme, Megan leads a subtheme focused on developing behaviour change interventions for adults with mental illness to reduce non-communicable disease risk factors. This includes managing a large project portfolio, developing effective multidisciplinary collaborations, and overseeing BRC multi-site operations. Megan has successfully designed and executed complex clinical trials integrating explanatory mechanistic measures of gut-microbiome, morning cortisol, and heart-rate-variability (HRV) self-monitoring into existing protocols.
Beyond academia, Megan leads the “CuppaCoach” sessions to offer mentorship and professional development for EMCRs in grant application revisions, interview preparation, and navigating challenging career decisions.
As a certified mindfulness instructor with a large global following on the Insight Timer app, you can follow Megan and access her free guided meditations and 15-day self-guided course, "The Wisdom of Our Wounds: Healing from Trauma" that currently has over 18 000 students across the world!
Key publications
-
A Web-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness Meditation, and Yoga Intervention for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Single-Arm Experimental Clinical Trial.
Journal article
Kirk MA. et al, (2022), JMIR Ment Health, 9
-
Wearable Technology and Physical Activity Behavior Change in Adults With Chronic Cardiometabolic Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Journal article
Kirk MA. et al, (2019), Am J Health Promot, 33, 778 - 791
-
Occupation Correlates of Adults' Participation in Leisure-Time Physical Activity
Journal article
Kirk MA. and Rhodes RE., (2011), American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 40, 476 - 485
-
Effectiveness of online cognitive behavioral interventions that include mindfulness for clinically-diagnosed anxiety and depressive disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Journal article
Kirk MA. et al, (2022), International Journal of Mental Health, 51, 235 - 266
-
An Online Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention for Youth Diagnosed With Major Depressive Disorders: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Journal article
Ritvo P. et al, (2019), JMIR Res Protoc, 8
-
Physical activity status of academic professors during their early career transition: An application of the theory of planned behavior
Journal article
Kirk MA. and Rhodes RE., (2012), Psychology, Health & Medicine, 17, 551 - 564
-
Motor skill interventions to improve fundamental movement skills of preschoolers with developmental delay.
Journal article
Kirk MA. and Rhodes RE., (2011), Adapt Phys Activ Q, 28, 210 - 232
-
Meaning in life and vagally-mediated heart rate variability: Evidence of a quadratic relationship at baseline and vagal reactivity differences
Journal article
Dang K. et al, (2021), International Journal of Psychophysiology, 165, 101 - 111