Kristy Benoit Allen is an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Child Psychology Program (CCPP) at the University of Kansas. A 2004 graduate of Harvard College, Dr. Benoit Allen earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Tech in 2013. She completed a pre-doctoral clinical psychology internship and post-doctoral fellowship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh before joining the University of Tennessee faculty in 2017. She joined the CCPP in 2022. Dr. Benoit Allen studies the etiology and treatment of youth anxiety, especially as it relates to family and cognitive risk factors. Her principal interests are concerned with parental mental health, parenting styles and behaviors, and cognitive biases in how parents and their children both attend to and interpret ambiguous or uncertain stimuli in their day-to-day lives. This work is informed through the use of multiple measurement strategies, including event-related potentials, eye-tracking, behavioral observation, and ecological momentary assessment. Dr. Benoit Allen is also interested in the use of computerized cognitive bias modification techniques as a prevention and intervention strategy for youth anxiety. Her research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, Anxiety and Depression Association of America, American Psychological Foundation, and the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology. In her free time, Dr. Benoit Allen can usually be found at the public library or out exploring Lawrence with her husband, Ben, and their children Lucia (8), Vivian (6), Evelyn (4), and Quincy (6 months). 

Past Research Assistants

• Julian Albright