Kristen's area of expertise is in Coastal Engineering. Her research covers broad topics including storm to inter-annual shoreline change monitoring and modelling; coastal erosion and beach recovery; dune erosion; remote sensing of the coastal environment; and reef-top hydrodynamics. She is part of a dynamic and growing group within #WRLCoastal alongside fellow researchers Dr. Mitch Harley and Prof. Ian Turner. Her groups currently jointly supervises a number of PhD students, post-docs, Masters and Honours theses as well as international interns.

As a female engineer, Kristen has a strong desire to support and encourage more women into the discipline. She currently advocates for better gender equity within the Faculty as a member of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, at the University level as co-chair of the Women in Research Network (WiRN), and internationally as a committee member of the Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering (WICGE). Kristen also serves on the Engineers Australia NSW Coasts, Oceans, and Ports Engineering Panel (COPEP), on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (JMSE), and is the co-founder of the #Coast2Coast seminar series with A/P Giovanni Coco (U. Auckland) and Dr. Mitch Harley (UNSW).