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INFORMATION FOR

Kimberly Hieftje, PhD

she/her/hers
Associate Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics)
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Additional Titles

Co-Director, XR Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, General Pediatrics

Co-Director/Co-Founder, Pediatrics

About

Titles

Associate Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics)

Co-Director, XR Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, General Pediatrics; Co-Director/Co-Founder, Pediatrics

Biography

Kimberly Hieftje, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Yale Pediatrics and co-director/co-founder of XRPeds and the Yale Center for Immersive Technologies in Pediatrics, which focuses on the development and evaluation of videogame interventions using extended reality (virtual reality, augmented reality, etc) for health prevention and promotion, behavior change, and education in adolescents and young adults. She is currently involved in the development and testing of several health behavior change XR and game-based interventions and has published frequently on developing, evaluating, and implementing serious games. She has worked on games that have focused on topics including vaping/e-c-cigarette prevention, tobacco use prevention, risk reduction in adolescents, HIV/STI prevention, HIV/STI testing, empowering girls around healthy decision making, bystander intervention, LGBTQ bullying, school climate, and alcohol harm reduction.

Dr. Hieftje was a K12 Scholar in the Yale Implementation Science program (YSIS), where she focused on understanding the factors associated with successful implementation of videogame interventions in schools.

Dr. Hieftje is also the editor-in-chief at the Games for Health Journal.

Last Updated on October 23, 2023.

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Postdoctoral Associate
Yale School of Medicine (2011)
PhD
Indiana University (2009)
MS
Indiana University (2007)
BS
Indiana University (1999)

Research

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Kimberly Hieftje's published research.

Publications

2025

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Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

Activities

  • activity

    Games for Health Journal

    2021 - PresentJournal ServiceEditor

Honors

  • honor

    John R. Endwright Alumni Service Award

    02/02/2023Other AwardIndiana University, School of Public Health

Get In Touch

Contacts

Email

Administrative Support

Locations

  • XRPeds Lab

    Lab

    55 Church Street, Fl Basement, Rm B04

    New Haven, CT 06510

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