Dr. Jennifer Kawi’s clinical expertise in pain management, having practiced as a board-certified family nurse practitioner, formed the foundation for her scientific inquiry. Her program of research is focused on chronic pain and various biobehavioral socioeconomic factors influencing pain including self-management, pain care disparities, opioid use, and pain interventions involving digital health care, and integrative medicine, specifically auricular point acupressure.

Dr. Kawi has received funding from NIH and other external funding sources as a primary investigator. She held various leadership and administrative positions, received numerous awards for her contributions, and has multiple publications and national/international presentations particularly in her research, teaching, and clinical roles.

Highlighted Publications:

Kawi J, Yeh CH, Grant L, Huang X, Wu H, Hua C, Christo P. Retention, adherence, and acceptability testing of a digital health intervention in a 3-group randomized controlled trial for chronic musculoskeletal pain. Complementary Therapies in Medicine. 2024;81:103030. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2024.103030

Kawi J, Yeh CH, Grant L, Thrul J, Wu H, Christo PJ, Evangelista LS. Adapting and Evaluating a Theory-Driven, Non-Pharmacological Intervention to Self-Manage Pain. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland). 2024;12(10):969. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12100969

Kawi, J, Fudolig M, Serafica R, Reyes AT, Sy F, Leyva EWA, Evangelista LS. Health information sources and health-seeking behaviours of Filipinos living in medically underserved communities: Empirical quantitative research. Nursing Open. 2024;11(3), e2140. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.2140

Kawi J, Yeh CH, Lukkahatai N, Hardwicke RL, Murphy T, Christo PJ. Exploring the feasibility of virtually delivered auricular point acupressure in self-managing chronic pain: Qualitative study. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2022;8079691. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/8079691 

Kawi J, Yeh CH, Li MC, Caswell K, Mazraani M, Lukkahatai N, Mensah S, Taylor J, Budhathoki C, Christo P. Auricular point acupressure smartphone application to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain: A longitudinal, one-group, open pilot trial. Global Advances in Health and Medicine. 2021;10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2164956120987531