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Dr. Kennedy-Metz's Research Lab

Research Interests

Dr. Kennedy-Metz’s primary research interest includes using physiological data from humans to make inferences about their underlying psychological states. She’s particularly interested in how stress affects our thoughts, behaviors, and performance. To study this, she uses non-invasive sensors to collect physiological data along with validated self-report measures to gain more insight into psychological states. Specific topics she is currently interested in include:

  • identifying what physiological and psychological stress looks like across distinct populations (e.g., students, student-athletes, police officers, healthcare workers, kitchen staff, etc.)
  • developing population-specific, tailored biofeedback-based approaches to stress management interventions
  • leveraging high-fidelity technology to evaluate the impact of interventions in safe environments (e.g., medical simulation

Both graduate and undergraduate students predominantly work on projects relating to the above research areas but have some flexibility in exact topics based on shared interests and motivation.

Working with Graduate Students

Graduate students working in Dr. Kennedy-Metz’s lab will gain valuable research experience collecting data directly from human subjects that will culminate in the completion of a master’s thesis. Students will have access to funding to support their research projects as well as fund travel to professional conferences. If you are interested in working with Dr. Kennedy-Metz, please contact her to see if she has openings in her lab at kennedymetz@roanoke.edu.

Working with Undergraduate Students

Research assistants working in Dr. Kennedy-Metz’s lab may be involved with many aspects of the research process, including conducting literature reviews, troubleshooting equipment as necessary, developing experimental materials and protocols, collecting data (in and outside of the lab), and entering and analyzing data. Highly motivated students will have opportunities for more involvement in study design, statistical analysis, presenting work at public forums, writing and submitting manuscripts based on work done in the lab, and other more advanced tasks.

Interested students should be hard working, self-sufficient, and in good academic standing (but can be any level of student, from freshman to upperclassmen). If you are interested in working with Dr. Kennedy-Metz, email her at kennedymetz@roanoke.edu. 

See Undergraduate Research for more information about opportunities, expectations, and course credits.

    Previous Research Interests

    Dr. Kennedy-Metz’s previous work in graduate school and for the 4 years afterwards was focused on how healthcare providers experience and cope with stress. She worked in the cardiac surgery department and observed hundreds of hours of open-heart procedures, collecting physiological data from the surgical team members throughout all of it.

    Another area she investigated in recent years was the impact and consequence of stress for craft brewery bartenders. This project involved a partnership with Olde Salem Brewing Company, collecting physiological data from bartenders at their two locations (Roanoke, Salem) under different circumstances (slow shifts, while training new bartenders, etc.).

    Beyond cardiac surgery team members and craft brewery employees, Dr. Kennedy-Metz aims to understand the stress experience better for a variety of populations!

    Recent Publications 

    • Gill, S. K.*, Kennedy-Metz, L. R. (2025). A systematic review of occupational stress and burnout in emergency medical technician and paramedic populations and associated consequences. International Journal for Quality in Healthcare, 37(2). *undergraduate student
    • Kennedy-Metz, L. R., Conboy, H. M., Liu, A., Dias, R. D., Harari, R., Gikandi, A., Shapeton, A., Clarke, L. A., Osterweil, L. J., Avrunin, G. S., Chaspari, T., Yule, S., Zenati, M. A. (2025). A novel, multi-modal, intraoperative cognitive workload assessment of cardiac surgery team members. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 170(1):287-296.
    • Keller, S., Jelsma, J., Tschan, F., Sevdalis, N., Lollgen, R. M., Creutzfeldt, J., Kennedy-Metz, L. R., Eppich, W., Semmer, N. K., Van Herzeele, I., Pukk Harenstam, K., de Bruijne, M. C. A. (2024). Behavioral sciences applied to acute care teams and surgery: A research agenda for the years ahead by a European research network. BMC Health Services Research, 24(1):71.

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