Health Disparities

Drawing on 20 years of practice as a nurse-midwife, Dr. Karen Trister Grace’s research interests are in reproductive coercion, intimate partner violence (IPV), pregnancy intention and health disparities. Dr. Grace recently conducted research addressing solutions to housing instability for IPV survivors, as well as a mixed methods study exploring reproductive coercion in Latina women. She has an interest in birth outcomes related to IPV and reproductive coercion, and the intersection with unintended pregnancy. Dr. Grace is the lead editor of the 3rd edition of the “Prenatal & Postnatal Care: A Person-Centered Approach” textbook.

Dr. Kossi Pierre Eklou is an Assistant Professor for the School of Nursing in the College of Public Health and a Board-Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.

George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services has joined the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network to collaborate on translational research whose goal is to improve health outcomes. The network is a collaboration between universities and diverse, community-based health care delivery systems in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Experts in Their Field Shed Light on the Disparities of Infectious Disease Transmission in Rural and Urban Areas with Application to Virginia

Dr. Marti Kubik has an 18-year history of extramural-funded research with a focus on youth and families and low-income and minority populations. Nationally recognized in the field of childhood obesity prevention, Dr. Kubik’s work has advanced understanding of the school food environment, contributing to school nutrition policy at state, national and international levels. Other research examined the role of school nursing in obesity prevention. New work piloted a trauma-informed, resilience-based multi-level intervention to reduce violence among urban youth. She has over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is a past standing member of the NIH Community-Level Health Promotion Study Section.

Katherine (“Kat”) Scafide is a tenured Associate Professor, forensic nurse and scientist in the School of Nursing. Her research primarily focuses on advancing equity in the medical identification and forensic documentation of injuries, particularly for patients of color, through innovative use of technology. She has received several federal awards to support these efforts.