Nathaniel Riggs is the executive director of the Prevention Research Center at Colorado State University, a campus-wide transdisciplinary center committed to studying the development, implementation and evaluation of effective and sustainable preventive interventions across the lifespan.

Riggs focuses on translating basic research in developmental neuroscience to school-based and family-focused interventions that prevent child and adolescent behavioral health problems including substance misuse.

He is also a community-engaged researcher who works alongside community partners, including schools, to provide training and technical assistance related to research-informed best practices for selecting, implementing and sustaining evidence-based youth preventive interventions. Riggs also works with local, state and federal policymakers on best practices for using data to inform policies that affect children, families and communities.

Riggs received his bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Washington in 1996. He then studied human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University, earning his master’s in 2001 and his Ph.D. in 2003.