About

Kristin Hughes is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Design, where her interdisciplinary research integrates design thinking, creativity, and communication design to foster meaningful change. She specializes in community-engaged and participatory design, developing collaborative solutions that empower individuals, enhance civic engagement, and strengthen personal agency. Through her work, Kristin uncovers hidden narratives and highlights the unique qualities that define a community’s identity, emphasizing its distinctive strengths. Her leadership in community engagement ensures that programs and services are responsive and sustainable, fostering deeper connections between people and systems to drive innovative opportunities and solutions. Kristin’s work encompasses translational design, equipping audiences with creative tools and methodologies to address systemic barriers in healthcare, such as communication gaps, cultural biases, and socioeconomic disparities. By merging design thinking with translational medicine, she champions equitable healthcare delivery that leads to meaningful improvements in patient care. Since joining Carnegie Mellon in 2001, Kristin has taught across all levels of the curriculum, from first-year courses to advanced studios, including Design for Social Innovation and Advanced Typographic Systems. In 2024, she began co-teaching Designing with CARE: Co-Creating Solutions for Complex Care Coordination in Oncology, an innovative course developed in collaboration with faculty from UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, and Duquesne University School of Nursing. A frequent conference speaker, Kristin has received multiple national and international design awards for her work. She also leads workshops for organizations, educators, community leaders, and students worldwide. She holds an MFA in Visual Communication from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University. Additionally, she has studied abroad at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and Yale University's workshop in Brissago, Switzerland.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Biochemistry
• Medical emergency
• Business
• Nursing
• Chromatography
• Economic growth
• Chemistry
• Environmental health
• Geography
• Biology
• Economics
• Gerontology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Bridging the gaps: A mixed methods analysis of barriers and solutions to patient-centered care in gynecologic cancer

  Gynecologic Oncology · 2026-04-23

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Happy Heels Education Bundle: Optimising heel lancing in neonates

  Journal of Neonatal Nursing · 2026-03-23

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Wearable sweat nicotine biosensor based on a nicotine oxidoreductase and its natural electron acceptor

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-11-06

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract The advent of wearable biosensors is empowering clinical and lifestyle decision making. Nicotine is a drug of significant negative impact on public health given the prevalence of smoking and vaping. Yet noninvasive, continuous monitoring of nicotine is challenging due to lack of specific and sensitive biosensing elements. Here, we report a wearable highly sensitive nicotine biosensor and demonstrate on-body deployment of the sensor in a first-in-human study. The biosensor comprises nicotine oxidoreductase (NicA2) with its natural cytochrome c electron acceptor (CycN) as mediator: both proteins play a key role in the nicotine-degrading bacterium, Pseudomonas putida S16 . The biosensor detects nicotine over four-orders of magnitude (0.1-100 μM) with nanomolar sensitivity (LOD ∼33.6 nM), performs in the physiological pH range (pH 6-9), and is highly selective against common interferants and the major human nicotine metabolite, cotinine. Incorporation of the biosensor in a custom wearable device enables real-time measurement of nicotine from locally induced sweat on volunteer subjects and demonstrates higher analytical accuracy than gold-standard mass spectrometry.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Using structure and informatics to probe the mechanism of enzymes in the flavin amine oxidase superfamily

  Structural Dynamics · 2025-03-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Flavoenzymes, which use a flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) cofactor, feature a wide range of activities and substrate specificities. This includes the ability to act as oxidases, relying on molecular oxygen (O2) as a co-substrate, or as dehydrogenases wherein the FAD is redox-cycled not by O2, but by other redox-active proteins or small-molecule substrates. Nicotine oxidoreductase (NicA2) is a flavin-dependent enzyme that provides a useful model system for interrogating structure-function relationships: first characterized as an oxidase, NicA2 has been proven to be a true dehydrogenase, with a native cytochrome c redox partner that greatly stimulates activity. Out of the 9,000 members of the flavin amine oxidase (FAO) superfamily, NicA2 and its downstream homolog pseudooxynicotine amine oxidase (Pnao) are the only members experimentally characterized as using a cytochrome c as an electron acceptor. This finding raises the question of whether other members may function similarly, and thus might in fact be unrecognized dehydrogenases. Additionally, NicA2 is structurally similar to known oxidases, for example Corynebacterium ammoniagenes monoamine oxidase (caMAO) (RMSD value of 1.89), therefore the molecular switch to convert an enzyme from a dehydrogenase to an oxidase may lie in a few key residues. Our bioinformatics analysis identifies dozens of genomes in which a cytochrome c is immediately downstream or upstream of a NicA2 homolog and one case of a larger molecular weight enzyme annotated as both a FAO and cytochrome c. Using the genome neighborhood network, many likely uncharacterized dehydrogenases were found that may have cytochrome c or cytochrome p450 cofactors. Upon further sequence and structural analysis, the dually annotated enzyme is a naturally occurring fusion: a NicA2 homolog fused to a cytochrome c at the enzyme's C-terminus, and its expression is currently in progress. Eight rationally designed variants based on conserved residues in known oxidases have been selected for mutagenesis and steady state kinetics. Additional information about the first half reaction with flavin has been elucidated by x-ray crystallography of a nicotine analog inhibitor complex. The structure, refined to 2.88 Å, shows good correspondence between positioning in the analog complex and the substrate complex structure which validates that the charge-transfer complex and spectral shift revealed in spectroscopic studies are mirroring steps along the reaction coordinate. Overall our study will elucidate how NicA2 and other cytochrome-dependent family members have evolved to interact with a cytochrome instead of O2, paving the way for the use of flavin-dependent enzymes in biosensing and bioremediation.

  PublisherDOI

• Hydrogen–Deuterium Exchange Epitope Mapping of Glycosylated Epitopes Enabled by Online Immobilized Glycosidase

  Analytical Chemistry · 2023 · 10 citations

  • Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  • Chromatography

  -glycan site; however, glycosylated protein sites are typically obscured from HDX detection as a result of the inherent heterogeneity of glycans. To overcome this limitation, we covalently immobilized the glycosidase PNGase Dj on a solid resin and incorporated it into an online HDX-MS workflow for post-HDX deglycosylation. The resin-immobilized PNGase Dj exhibited robust tolerance to various buffer conditions and was employed in a column format that can be readily adapted into a typical HDX-MS platform. Using this system, we were able to obtain full sequence coverage of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) and map the glycosylated epitope of the glycan-binding mAb S309 to the RBD.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Breech Delivery in the Emergency Department

  Springer eBooks · 2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Medical emergency
  • Nursing
  PublisherDOI

• Exploring Perceived Importance of a Novel Emergency Food Program during COVID-19 and Program Recipient Characteristics

  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2021 · 14 citations

  • Environmental health
  • Medicine
  • Gerontology

  Following rising unemployment rates and consequent loss of income due to COVID-19, many people have been seeking meal assistance. This study examines the impact of a community-based free meal distribution program during the pandemic in Kentucky, reviewing characteristics of recipients of the program. Demographics, health behaviors, food insecure classification, and rating of importance of the meal program were collected. Qualitative feedback on the impact of the program was collected via open response. Of the 92 participants using the meal service, the cohort was female, Black, 43 years of age (43.5 ± 15.0 years), with a household income under 30,000 USD before COVID, decreased income since COVID, and were food insecure. Recipients rated the importance of the service as 8.7 ± 1.8 (of 10), and those with children indicated the importance as 4.2 ± 1.1 (of 5). Qualitative data on program importance highlighted four response categories including "changed habits", "mental wellbeing", "provided resources", and "other". In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals have struggled. Meal assistance programs are a fundamental asset in the community that have seen marketed demand since COVID-19. Collaboration with, and evaluation of, meal assistance programs can be valuable for continued programmatic funding support.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A “Sense”-ational HPV Vaccination Quality Improvement Project in a Family Medicine Residency Practice

  Journal of the National Medical Association · 2019-07-06 · 11 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Fitwits: Designed to help physicians start conversations with families about obesity

  Figshare · 2018-06-29 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Doctors in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area often have difficulty speaking with children and parents about childhood obesity issues for a number of reasons. They have limited time in well-child appointments, they perceive a lack of effectiveness of these talks, and these discussions can seem confrontational to children and parents. This paper describes the creation, testing, and implementation of Fitwits MD, a tool that can be used by physicians to facilitate these discussions. Building on prior work developed in the Fitwits School Program, we ran participatory design sessions with health care providers from family medicine and pediatric institutions. The activities included redefining often misused and confusing terminology, role-playing as 9- to 12-year-old patients, open conversations about the barriers to weight discussion with families, and the issues providers believe are most important to convey to patients. Doctors used the Fitwits School Program games as inspiration to generate new games that might help them during a well-child visit. During these sessions, doctors realized the difficulties they had in finding a common language and overcoming time and other barriers that limit the desired content. Doctors needed a tool to facilitate comfort between doctors and patients and develop a structure that gives key messages and conversational opportunities. The result is Fitwits MD, a structured tool for office discussion of obesity during well-child care. The Fitwits MD framework and language provide a conversation that is gratifying to early adolescents, caregivers, and health care providers alike.

  OA PDFDOI

• Fitwits ^TM Leads to Improved Parental Recognition of Childhood Obesity and Plans to Encourage Change

  The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine · 2017-03-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  INTRODUCTION: intervention with interactive flashcards and before and- after surveys to improve parents' perceptions of children's BMI status. METHODS: We enrolled 140 parents and their 9- to 12-year-old children presenting for well child care, regardless of BMI status, scheduled with 53 Fitwits-trained physicians. The Fitwits tool guided a conversation with all parent-child dyads regarding understanding BMI, nutrition, activity, and portion sizes. A survey addressed BMI category perceptions before and after the intervention, requested 2 goal selections, and included open-ended comment areas. RESULTS: Fifty-three percent of children were overweight or obese. The primary outcome variable was the rate of correct parental identification of their child's weight status (underweight, healthy, overweight, or obese). The survey before the intervention resulted in 50.0% correct BMI category designations. This changed to 60.6% correct perceptions after the intervention, with movement between correct overweight (34.5% to 51.7%) and obese (4.4% to 24.4%) categories. Secondary outcome variables included specific behavior change goals and the qualitative responses of parents, children, and physicians to the intervention. Parent-child dyads predominantly commented favorably and chose (75.8%) goals corresponding to Fitwits card suggestions. CONCLUSIONS: An improvement was observed in parental ability to identify the correct BMI category after the intervention during a preadolescent well child visit. Parent underrecognition of overweight/obese children was also observed. Most parent comments were appreciative of the physician interaction, Fitwits flashcards, and health improvement exchange.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ann McGaffey

  University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

  43 shared

• Frank d'Amico

  FMC (United States)

  40 shared

• Ilene Katz Jewell

  Thomas Jefferson University

  38 shared

• Linda Hogan

  St. Margaret Memorial Hospital

  38 shared

• Valerie M. P. Wislo

  Renaissance Services (United States)

  37 shared

• Diane J. Abatemarco

  Thomas Jefferson University

  37 shared

• Bethany Edwards

  36 shared

• Elaine Boron

  Carnegie Mellon University

  36 shared

Awards & honors

• Multiple national and international design awards