Summary
My background is in population health, sociology and policy research. My focus areas are biopsychosocial determinants of maternal and child health; structural violence and social stress; and the health implications of migration and displacement. I have led or co-led multiple data collection projects using survey, interview and ethnographic methods, and I use quantitative analytical techniques from biostatistical, epidemiological and quasi-experimental study designs. My work spans local, global and international border contexts including Northern Nevada, North America and Southeast Asia.
Interpersonal violence affects 1 in 3 women and nearly half of children globally. Additionally, organized violence forcibly displaces over 1% of the world’s population yearly. Each type of violence operates within broader systems of inequality—structural violence. Yet despite wide recognition of its harm, how violence operates within and across global contexts to get “under the skin” in ways affecting biology, behavior and health over the life course remains poorly understood and poorly addressed. To confront this, I study how violence and stress are socially patterned and underlie health inequities through biopsychosocial pathways over the individual life course and across generations. With the aim of promoting social justice and human rights as critical aspects of public health, I partner with communities, women’s groups, government agencies and the United Nations to conduct collaborative research that informs public policy and health practice.
Publications
- Polos, Jessica, Stephanie M. Koning, Taylor Hargrove, Kiarri N. Kershaw, and Thomas W. McDade. "Structural Racism in School Contexts and Adolescent Depression: Development of New Indices for the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and Beyond." Social Science & Medicine - Population Health. Forthcoming
- Schlauch, Karen A., Robert William Read, Stephanie M. Koning, Iva Neveux, Joseph Grzymski. "Using Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Adult Mental and Physical Health in a Northern Nevadan Population." Frontiers in Psychiatry. Forthcoming.
- Koning, Stephanie M., Alberto Palloni, Jenna Nobles, Ian Coxhead, and Lia Fernald. "The reach of fertility decline: a longitudinal analysis of human capital gains across generations." Genus. In press.
- Koning, Stephanie M., Jessica Polos, Kiarri N. Kershaw, and Thomas W. McDade. 2022. "Racial inequities in birth weight by maternal age among college-educated mothers: The role of early disadvantage." American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 62(5), pp.735-744
- Polos, Jessica, Stephanie M. Koning, and Thomas W. McDade. 2021. "Do Intersecting Identities Structure Social Contexts to Influence Life Course Health? The Case of School Peer Economic Disadvantage and Obesity." Social Science & Medicine, 289, 114424.
- Koning, Stephanie M., Amanda Flaim, Leo Baldiga, and David A. Feingold. 2021. “Legal status as a life course determinant of health: Parent status, adjudication stages, and HIV knowledge among highlanders in Thailand.” BMC Public Health, 21, 1839.
- Flaim, Amanda, David Feingold, Daniel B. Ahlquist, Stephanie M. Koning, Peerayot Sidonrusmee, Laura Rozek, and Wisa Wisesjindawat-Fink. 2021. “The UNESCO Highland Peoples Surveys: Tracing Inequalities in Health Care Access and Provision in Northern Thailand.” Journal of Health Science and Alternative Medicine, 3(2), 30-42.
- McDade, Thomas, Jess M. Meyer, Stephanie M. Koning, and Kathleen Mullan Harris. 2021. Body mass and the epidemic of chronic inflammation in early mid-adulthood. Social Science & Medicine, 114059.
- Hunter, Lori M., Stephanie M. Koning, Elizabeth Fussell, Brian King, Andrea Rishworth, Alexis Merdjanoff, Raya Muttarak, Fernando Riosmena, Dan H. Simon, Emily Skop, Jamon Van Den Hoek. 2021. Scales and Sensitivities in Climate Vulnerability, Migration, and Health. Population and Environment, 1-21.
- Koning, Stephanie M., Kaylee Scott, Mari Palta, James Conway. 2021. Reproductive Health at Borders of Conflict and Instability: Human rights violations and adverse perinatal health outcomes at the Thai-Myanmar border. Conflict and Health, 15(1), 1-10
- McDade, Thomas, and Stephanie M. Koning. 2021. Early origins of socioeconomic inequalities in chronic inflammation: Evaluating the contributions of low birth weight and short breastfeeding. Social Science & Medicine, 113592.
- Koning, Stephanie M. 2019. Displacement Contexts and Violent Landscapes: How conflict and displacement structure women's lives and ongoing threats at the Thai-Myanmar border. Social Science & Medicine, 240, 112557.
- Koning, Stephanie M., and Deborah B. Ehrenthal. 2019. Stressor Landscapes, Birth Weight, and Prematurity at the Intersection of Race and Income: Elucidating Birth Contexts through Patterned Life Events. Social Science & Medicine – Population Health, 8, 100460.
- Diaz, Christina J., Koning, Stephanie M., & Ana P. Martinez-Donate. 2016. Moving Beyond Salmon Bias: Mexican Return Migration and Health Selection. Demography, 53(6), 2005-2030.
- Koning, Stephanie M. 2018. Lessons from the Field: Refugees, Climate Change, and Health. Population-Environment Research Network, Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University.
- Koning, Stephanie M. 2014. Could universal health care coverage restrict access? The mixed effects of universal coverage on minorities' receipt of obstetric care in northern Thailand. The Lancet Global Health, 2, S17.
Education
- Ph.D., Population Health (Epidemiology emphasis), University of Wisconsin-Madison USA, 2018
- M.S., Sociology (Demography emphasis), University of Wisconsin-Madison USA, 2018
- B.S., Biology with minor in Communications, cum laude • Wheaton College, Illinois USA, 2008