Kristen L. Ethier

Kristen L. Ethier, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor at Simmons University’s School of Social Work, where her scholarship, teaching, and practice converge on reproductive justice and family thriving among system-involved and marginalized populations.

Education

• PhD, Social Work – University of Chicago
• AM, Social Work – University of Chicago
• MA, Sociology – DePaul University
• BA, Women’s and Gender Studies – Clark University

Research & Scholarly Focus
Dr. Ethier’s work is animated by an intersectional feminist lens and a commitment to anti-racist praxis. Employing mixed-methods designs, she explores how child-welfare involvement shapes parenting development and sexual/reproductive health access for youth in foster care. A second major strand examines Black mothers’ experiences of mothering under chronic traumatic stress and racialized violence. She also co-leads NIH-funded hybrid effectiveness-implementation trials that integrate mental-health and positive-affect interventions into Ryan White clinics serving young Black sexual-minority men living with HIV.

Grant Portfolio

• 2023-2024 Co-Investigator, Conrad J. Hilton Foundation ($40,000) – longitudinal mixed-methods study of expectant and parenting youth in foster care
• 2021-2026 Co-Investigator & Project Coordinator, NIMH ($2.3 million) – Project nGage social-network intervention for Black MSM living with HIV
• 2020-2025 Co-Investigator & Senior Research Analyst, NIH ($3.2 million) – stepped-wedge trial of an online positive-affect intervention in Ryan White clinics

Teaching & Pedagogy
Dr. Ethier teaches the Advanced Clinical Practice sequence (SW424A/B) at Simmons, creating classroom spaces that model social-justice ethics through rigorous, warm, and supportive engagement grounded in bell hooks’ liberatory pedagogy.

Impact & Outreach
Her findings have informed national practice adaptations at Healthy Families America and have been disseminated via policy briefs, podcasts, and professional networks such as Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and the ReShaping Network.