Kristen Jordan received her BA in biology from the University of Virginia in 1993. She then attended Wake Forest University School of Medicine where she earned a PhD in Pharmacology (1998) under the guidance of Dr. Kathleen Grant. As a graduate student, Kristen conducted various behavioral studies assessing the pharmacological mechanisms involved in alcohol abuse and was supported by a NIAAA training grant. From that point, Dr. Jordan was employed by Boston University as a postdoctoral fellow in the Psychology department with Dr. Kathleen Kantak. During her time at BU, Dr. Jordan expanded her research skills by incorporating new animal models including those assessing cognition and drug abuse. She was awarded an individual national achievement award (NRSA) pertaining to her work on cognitive aspects of drug abuse.

In 2001 Dr. Jordan was hired as a full-time employee with Targacept, Inc., a pharmaceutical company specializing in the development of novel nicotinic compounds having selective pharmacological activity at specific central nervous system (CNS) receptor sites. Since that time, she has been promoted to her current position as Director of Behavioral Pharmacology for Targacept. In that role, she acts as a working manager balancing many roles within and outside the company.

Dr. Jordan’s primary research focus is preclinical assessment of drug efficacy in a number of CNS disease states including Parkinson’s disease, cognitive impairment, anxiety, depression, nociception, obesity, schizophrenia and drug abuse. She serves on all of Targacept’s currently active pre-clinical project teams and is involved in identifying novel therapeutic endpoints for compounds having activity at neuronal nicotinic receptors.