Kirchner.wiki
Hello!
My name is Kristin Kirchner and I’m an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Science at Valdosta State University. I started my education with a B.S. in Experimental Psychology (with a minor in Biology) from USC Upstate, then went on to earn my M.A. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at the University of South Carolina, along with a graduate certificate in Applied Statistics. My early research began in a behavioral neuroscience lab where I studied neuroinflammation and histamine in the brains of HIV-1 transgenic rats, but over time it’s shifted toward understanding how chronic stress (whether from illness, isolation, or moral injury) shows up in real people’s lives, especially healthcare workers and college students. I currently do a lot of survey-based research, but I also use ELISA technology to look at hair, saliva, and tissue samples for chemicals of interest (like cortisol).
In the classroom, I teach a pretty wide range of courses, from Intro to Psychology and Statistical Methods to Physiological Psychology, Sensation & Perception, Drugs, Health & Behavior, and our university’s Senior Seminar. I try to keep things interesting in my courses: I’ve even built a role-playing game to help students practice empathy and problem-solving while still displaying their knowledge of the field.
What I love most, though, is working directly with students on research. I mentor a lot of undergrads through their own projects, and it’s genuinely one of the best parts of the job to watch them present their work, publish, and figure out what’s next.
On this website you’ll find some of my Open Educational Resources, namely the roleplaying assignment I built for our Senior Seminar students and presented at STP:ACT 2024, STP Online 2025, and SETOP 2026. You’re free to use and adapt any of those resources—I only ask that you credit me if you use them with minimal adaptation. However, I didn’t invent the art of roleplaying and DnD! If you use these resources as ideas to help you make your own roleplaying assignments, it’s all yours!
You’ll also find a drug compendium. I’m building this out as a resource for the students in my Drugs, Health, and Behavior course, and I’ve even had some students assist in the page’s creation! As part of their class assignments, students are being tasked with updating statistics, finding more current research, and adding in new drug interactions to each page. My hope is that this can be a website that grows and evolves with time and will continue to be a resource for my students (and other students) as they learn.
Outside of academia, I love video games, Pokémon, traveling, anime, and my tabby cat Hobbes.