Kelly Doran, MD, MHS is an emergency physician and Associate Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where she co-directs the Health x Housing Lab.
Dr. Doran has been active in homelessness-related work since volunteering at a student-run homeless shelter as an undergraduate at Harvard College (2002). She attended medical school at the University of Michigan (2007), completed a residency in emergency medicine at NYU-Bellevue (2011), and earned a master’s degree in health sciences as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at Yale University (2013).
Dr. Doran’s research expertise spans mixed methods, implementation science, community-based participatory research, and health services research. She is principal investigator for two community-partnered studies funded by the NIH that examine the intersection of housing and substance use (NIDA R01DA054976 [2022–2027], Implementation of Overdose Prevention Practices in Permanent Supportive Housing; and NIDA R01DA054956 [2022–2027], Crisis Response, Durable Lessons: A Mixed Methods Examination of a Large-Scale Hoteling Intervention for People Experiencing Homelessness). She is also Co-Principal Investigator for a CDC-funded study (R01CE003699, 2024–2029) examining harm reduction interventions in NYC homeless shelters. All of these studies leverage large administrative datasets, including New York Medicaid data and the NYC Department of Social Services / Department of Homeless Services dataset that will be used for the proposed research.
Past research relevant to the current proposal also includes a mixed methods study examining prediction and prevention of future homelessness amongst emergency department (ED) patients. This NIH-funded project (NIDA K23DA039179, 2016–2022, PI: Doran) leveraged patient surveys linked with administrative data to develop predictive models and screening tools for future homelessness, and tested delivery of a homelessness prevention intervention to ED patients. Dr. Doran has completed several other projects using linked, cross-sector administrative datasets to examine policy-relevant questions related to homelessness.
Dr. Doran’s research is informed by her ongoing clinical work as an emergency physician at Bellevue Hospital, a public safety net hospital in NYC. She is recognized as an expert on homelessness and other social determinants of health, and has given invited presentations on these topics at the National Academies of Science and the White House.