Dr Kirstie Soar

Trial Manager

London South Bank University

Biography

Dr Kirstie Soar is Trial Manager of the NIHR funded project SCeTCH (Smoking Cessation for the Homeless), in the Centre for Addictive Behaviours Research (CABR), School of Applied Sciences, London South Bank University (LSBU).  She joined LSBU in 2020, having worked for the previous 20 years in the School of Psychology at the University of East London, where she was a Reader, Deputy Head of Department and led the Drugs and Addictive Behaviours Research Group.

Dr Soar’s research interests are around the cognitive and psychobiological effects of recreational drug use (MDMA/Ecstasy, cannabis, cocaine, and Novel Psychoactive Substances) and more recently focus has shifted to vaping (both nicotine and cannabis), assessing the experiences of vapers, effects of vaping and the role of vapes in smoking cessation.  Her work is published widely, both nationally and internationally and is highly cited.  Her work has significant impact directly feeding into National Centre for Smoking Cessation Training (NCSCT) and Public Health England (PH) training guidelines and the Health and Social Care Committee Drugs Policy Inquiry (2019), and the UK Government Consultation: Advancing our Health: prevention in the 2020s Supporting Smokers to Quit.  Dr Soar has received grants from Alcohol Change UK and Sir Richard Stapleys Educational.  She has conducted consultancy work for the NCSCT, a health care consulting company – PharmaStrat, Royal Society of Medicine and Essex and Thurrock Drug Action Teams.