You never know when a brief experience will have a tremendous impact on a person’s career. For MPH student Kristen Krause, it was a winter session course she took with Dr. Perry Halkitis at NYU London. “Our class explored the city for two and a half weeks, comparing the U.S. to the U.K. in their approaches to HIV care, prevention and treatment. We visited organizations, heard speakers and immersed ourselves in field work opportunities. It was a real-world perspective.”
Kristen knew she wanted to continue working in HIV-related research, so she explored a PhD in public health with Dr. Halkitis at Rutgers, who leads the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies (CHIBPS). “He was enthusiastic and supportive from the beginning, and really an incredible mentor.” While completing her master’s degree, Kristen interned at CHIBPS and worked on research. She also worked part-time at GPH Student Affairs, an experience she describes as “busy, but a lot of fun.”
For her applied practice project, Kristen worked on a longitudinal cohort study that analyzed the relationship between early life psychosocial stressors and housing instability among a cohort of young LGBTQ+ individuals. “The analysis teased that relationship out a bit and was eventually published, which was fun. It was my first authored paper, and a really good hands-on learning opportunity.” After earning her MPH in 2015 and finding a niche she was passionate about, she migrated to Rutgers to continue doing research and pursue her doctorate.
Kristen received her PhD there in 2020 and advanced at CHIBPS to deputy director, a position she holds today. “I lead a lot of our research initiatives alongside Dean Halkitis, keep our team organized, oversee the research coordinators, research assistants and interns, and make sure that everyone's getting the most out of their experience. So it’s been a full-circle situation for me, to begin as an intern and make my way to deputy director.”
Kristen continues research related to her original interests – HIV and aging within the LGBTQ+ community – but she’s also begun to explore other areas. “I'm in the Sustained Training for Aging and HIV Research program based out of UC San Diego, learning about other datasets that can be used. I've also been co-leading a gun violence study of the intersection of interpersonal violence with firearm ownership among LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. And we've been working on facilitators and barriers for vaccine uptake for the main, preventable STIs that have vaccines. That led into another project specifically examining Hepatitis A vaccine knowledge and uptake; we'll launch a study on that soon. There's a lot going on!”
While Kristen has focused on academic research so far, she’s open to possibilities in other sectors. “I always want my career to have some meaning, and the potential to contribute to the betterment of the folks I work with. I have a great job, my colleagues are really incredible people and I enjoy research, but I'm always open to new ideas within the HIV sphere that I might dabble in, like the intersection of HIV and cancer. In the future I see myself still doing research, mentoring as much as I can, and trying to contribute positively to the world.”