Kristen L. Ethier, LCSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Simmons University School of Social Work. The aim of Dr. Ethier's work is to transform individual lives, interventions, and systems towards a vision of reproductive justice and family thriving. As an intersectional feminist social worker, her teaching, practice, and scholarly work have long been devoted to promoting sexual and reproductive health equity across several populations and promoting family thriving for parents and their children who experience oppression.
As a practitioner, Dr. Ethier began her career working as a sexual and reproductive health counselor, grassroots organizer, and program director with expectant and parenting adolescents here in Massachusetts. From there, she worked as a full spectrum doula, supportive housing case manager, and somatic psychotherapist with youth and young adults in a community health setting in both Illinois and Massachusetts.
Over 15 years of practice experience catalyzes her mixed-methods, interdisciplinary research agenda, which investigates how child welfare involvement shapes parenting development and sexual and reproductive health access, the influence of Black mothers' experiences of mothering under conditions of continuous traumatic stress and violence exposure, and evaluating interventions aimed at promoting equitable care engagement for Black sexual minority people living with HIV.
Shaped by her practice and scholarly experiences, Dr. Ethier is dedicated to teaching courses where the social justice values and ethics that are foundational to the social work profession are actively practiced and embodied. Her courses are inherently feminist and anti-racist, and, in the pedagogic tradition of the bell hooks, the classroom is a site for personal and social transformation. Students in Dr. Ethier's courses note that her approach is rigorous, warm, and supportive. Come to class with a mug for tea!
Education
- PhD, Social Work, from University of Chicago
- AM, Social Work, from University of Chicago
- MA, Sociology, from DePaul University
- BA, Women's and Gender Studies, from Clark University
Courses
- SW424A Advanced Clinical Practice I
- SW424B Advanced Clinical Practice II
Research/Creative Activities
Dr. Ethier conducts mixed methods, collaborative research on sexual and reproductive health equity and parenting development with youth in foster care and hybrid intervention-implementation research promoting mental health and equitable care engagement for people living with HIV. Dr. Ethier's dissertation study examined how child welfare system policies and practices shape the transition to motherhood among youth in foster care in Illinois. In collaboration with colleagues at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, she conducted a separate pilot implementation study of evidence-based doula and home visiting services in Illinois. Findings from this study informed Healthy Families America's nationwide practice adaptation to equip doulas and home visitors to meet the unique needs of child welfare involved families. Building on this work, Dr. Ethier is collaborating with colleagues on a mixed-methods longitudinal study funded by the Conrad J. Hilton Foundation, which will be one of the first studies to examine outcomes and experiences of both mothers and fathers in foster care, as well as to highlight the unique experiences of several subgroups of parenting youth. In addition to her work on expectant and parenting youth in foster care, Dr. Ethier is a Co-Investigator on two NIH-funded hybrid intervention-implementation randomized controlled trials of interventions with people living with HIV. Her work on these studies focused on applying a health equity lens to understand barriers and facilitators to implementation across organizational and community contexts. Dr. Ethier's research has been published in Social Service Review, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.
Recent Grant Funding
- 2023-2024 Co-Investigator. Expectant and Parenting Youth in Foster Care. Conrad J. Hilton Foundation, $40,000
- 2021-2026 Project Coordinator and Co-Investigator. Harnessing social network support to improve retention in care and viral suppression among young Black men in Chicago and Alabama: A hybrid type I effectiveness-implementation trial of Project nGage. National Institute of Mental Health, $2,316,461
- 2020-2025 Senior Research Analyst and Co-Investigator A stepped wedge hybrid type II trial of an online positive affect intervention: Blending implementation and effectiveness to improve HIV continuum outcomes in Ryan White clinics in Chicago, $3,167,992
Publications/Presentations
Select Recent Peer-Reviewed Publications
Ethier, K. (2022). Relationships to self, baby, others, and system: A narrative analysis of the transition to parenthood for young mothers in foster care. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-022-00846-4
Harty, J., & Ethier, K. (2022). Fatherhood in foster care: A scoping review spanning 30 years of research on expectant and parenting fathers in state care. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-022-00848-2
Stump, T., Ethier, K., Hirschhorn, L., Dakin, A., Bouacha, N., Freeman, A., Bannon, J., Gomez, W., Moskowitz, J., & Bouris, A. (2022). Development of an implementation facilitation strategy to link mental health screening and eHealth intervention for Ryan White-funded clinics in Chicago. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. https://doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000002980
Mendenhall, R., Ethier, K., Lee, M.J., Overton, K., Houser, K., & Roberts, C. (2021). Trauma over the life course for Black mothers in Chicago: Understanding conditions, meaning making, and resiliency. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care. https://doi.org/10.29011/2688-7460.100059
Dworsky, A., Gitlow, E., & Ethier, K. (2021). Bridging the divide between child welfare and home visiting systems to meet the needs of pregnant and parenting youth in care. Social Service Review, 95.1: 110-164. https://doi.org/10.1086/713875.
Reports and other publications
ReShaping Network: Elizabeth Aparicio, Katie Massey Combs, Amy Dworsky, Kristen Ethier, Bryn King. (2022) How the Dobbs Decision Affects Youth in Care and Recommendations for Providers - Healthy Teen Network
"Fathers in Foster Care" The Imprint Youth & Family News Audio Podcast (August 1, 2022) with Dr. Justin Harty. https://imprintnews.org/podcast/fathers-foster-care
Dworsky, A., Gitlow, E. Ethier, K. (2019). Home visiting for pregnant and parenting youth in care: Final report. Chicago: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.
Dworsky, A., Gitlow, E. Ethier, K. (2018). Home visiting for pregnant and parenting youth in care: FY 2018 preliminary report. Chicago: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.