Dr. Megan Kirk Chang

Dr. Megan Kirk Chang is a Senior Researcher in Metabolic Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford. She holds a PhD in Kinesiology and Health Sciences and an Advanced Doctoral Diploma in Health Psychology from York University (Toronto, Canada), and completed postdoctoral training at Yale University in the School of Medicine prior to arriving to the UK. She brings over two decades of academic and clinical trials experience, specialising in participant adherence, across healthcare systems in Canada, the USA, and the UK.

A specialist in evidence synthesis, multicomponent intervention design and implementation, and co-design with lived experience, Megan leads research that empowers adults with mental illness to make sustainable lifestyle changes that improve wellbeing. Currently, she is the Inaugural NexJ Health Metabolic Psychiatry Fellow through an NIHR Innovation Fellowship, developing digitally-supported ketogenic diet and GLP-1 lifestyle programs using AI-assisted health coaching, wearable technology, and behavioural adherence tools to help people with serious mental illness improve metabolic and mental health simultaneously.

At Oxford, she works with Professor Amedeo Minichino, co-lead of the Oxford Health BRC Preventing Multiple Morbidities theme. Megan leads a subtheme on developing and evaluating health behaviour-change interventions that target non-communicable disease risk factors. Notably, she co-led the landmark DIME trial investigating a ketogenic diet for treatment resistant depression and was also the recipient of the first NIHR Team Science award to improve quality of life measurement in adults with multiple long-term conditions.

She has successfully designed and delivered complex NIH-registered, multi-site randomised controlled trials - from dietary and exercise-based interventions to mindfulness programmes - integrating psychometric and objective mechanistic measures such as gut microbiome, morning cortisol, pupillometry and HRV self-monitoring. Her work combines rigorous clinical trial management and analysis with a commitment to stakeholder engagement, ensuring interventions are both scientifically robust and person-centred.

Beyond research, Megan mentors emerging scientists through her "CuppaCoach" sessions, offering guidance on grant writing, interview preparation, and academic career development. As a certified mindfulness instructor with a global following on the Insight Timer app, she teaches evidence-based practices in her course “The Wisdom of Our Wounds: Healing from Trauma,” now followed by over 27,000 students worldwide. Megan’s work bridges science, compassion, and innovation, translating evidence into meaningful, scalable change for mental and physical health.