A. Katrina Nelson, PhD, MPH, MSc

A. Katrina Nelson, PhD is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Her research questions how the way we interact with one another impacts health. A specialist in qualitative and mixed methods, her work is informed by years as a bilingual researcher living in Mexico, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and the Navajo Nation. With public health training from Europe and the U.S., she applies her topical expertise in early child development and youth mental health to emerging issues relevant to our time: the use of firearms, caregiver/ child interaction and screen use, and social aspects of autism and other behavioral disorders.

Katrina's Fulbright-funded dissertation research examined corporal punishment use and intergenerational trauma among adolescent mothers and their young children in the Dominican Republic. Prior to that, she led two community-based early child development interventions in Lima, Peru funded by Grand Challenges Canada. She is now building her research program while contributing to community-based youth research at the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative at YSPH.