Faculty Profile

Kelley Kidwell

Kelley M. Kidwell, PhD

  • Professor, Biostatistics
  • Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, School of Public Health

Kelley Kidwell is a faculty member in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where she also serves as Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs. Her methodological research centers on the design and analysis of sequential multiple assignment randomized trials (SMARTs) and dynamic treatment regimens. Her contributions include small sample SMART (snSMART) designs for rare diseases where the second stage is used for greater efficiency of stage 1 estimates and more pragmatic, large sample SMARTs that incorporate patient treatment preferences. As a principal investigator and collaborating biostatistician, she applies these methods to clinical trials in oncology, pain, mental health, and perioperative care, with funding from sources including PCORI and the FDA.

  • PhD, Biostatistics, University of Pittsburgh, 2012
  • BS, Mathematics, Bucknell University, 2007

Research Interests:
Clinical trial design and analysis; Sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trial (SMART) design and analysis

Research Projects:
Kidwell and Braun hold a contract with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop design and methods to share information across trial stages to compare low and high dose effects to placebo in a small sample, sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trial (snSMART).

Kidwell and Braun hold a contract with the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Initiative (PCORI) to develop design and methods to incorporate patient preferences into SMART design.

Kidwell has SMART designs in the field in the settings of risky behaviors in adolescents (PI Walton), insomnia (PI Drake), lower back pain (PI Clauw/Hasset), suicide prevention (PI Czyz), implementation of a preoperative optimization program (PI Telem), reducing alcohol use after surgery (PI Fernandez), and improving access and treatment for individuals with alcohol use disorders (PI Bonar/Lin).

Kidwell, K.M., Almirall, D. Sequential, Multiple Assignment, Randomized Trial Designs. (2023). JAMA. 329(4): 336 — 337. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.24324.

Wang, S., Roychoudhury, S., Kidwell, K.M. Dynamic enrichment of Bayesian small-sample, sequential multiple assignment randomized trial design using natural history data: a case study from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. (2023). Biometrics. 79, 3612-3623.

Chao, Y.C.*, Tran, Q.*, Tsodikov, A., Kidwell, K.M. Joint modeling and multiple comparisons with the best for data from a SMART with survival outcomes. (2022). Biostatistics. 23(1): 294-313.

Wank, M., Medley, S., Tamura, R., Braun, T., Kidwell, K.M. A Partially Randomized Patient Preference, Sequential, Multiple-Assignment, Randomized Trial Design Analyzed via Weighted and Replicated Frequentist and Bayesian Methods. (2024). Statistics in Medicine. 43(30): 5777-5790.

Wang, S., Roychoudhury, S., Kidwell, K.M. Evaluating longitudinal treatment effects for Duchenne muscular dystrophy using dynamically enriched Bayesian small sample, sequential, multiple assignment randomized trial (snSMART). (2025). Biometrics. 81(3):ujaf103.

Medley, S., Wank, M., Tamura, R.N., Braun, T.M., Kidwell, K.M. SMARTs with Treatment Preference: Pragmatic SMART Design and Methods Motivated by STAR*D. (2026). Contemporary Clinical Trials. 160: 108162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2025.108162"

View Dr. Kelley Kidwell's publications on Google Scholar

M4164 SPH II
1415 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Email: [email protected]
Office: 734-764-6724

For media inquiries: [email protected]

Areas of Expertise: Biostatistics,  Chronic Disease,  Clinical Trials,  Mental Health