Katherine Froehlich-Grobe

Katherine Froehlich-Grobe, PhD, received her graduate training in Behavioral Psychology from the University of Kansas. Before joining Craig Hospital as a Research Scientist in April of 2021, Dr. Froehlich-Grobe spent 5½ years at Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation as Associate Director of Rehabilitation Research (4½ years) and then as Director (1 year). Prior to conducting research within rehabilitation settings, she spent 16 years in academic settings as a faculty member at the University of Kansas Medical Center (OT Department), the University of Kansas Lifespan Institute, and the University of Texas School of Public Health (Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences).

Dr. Froehlich-Grobe brings 20 years of research experience designing and conducting theory-based interventions that target health behavior change for individuals with physical disabilities, including spinal cord injury (SCI). She has received over $4.5 million dollars in funding from NIH, CDC, and NIDILRR, as well as the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and the Craig H. Nelson Foundation. Her research program focuses on designing interventions that formally address unique barriers which confront people with disabilities as they initiate new behaviors around exercise and weight loss. She has delivered these health behavior interventions using a mix of in-person and phone-based sessions, and more recently is using an online platform to reach those with SCI.

Dr. Froehlich-Grobe’s currently funded research program includes a study to understand modifiable factors that affect dietary intake and physical activity in the first year following SCI, scaling up a web-based intervention to promote exercise among a SCI sample, and examining the effectiveness of targeted components to promote weight loss among people with SCI.