Stephanie Koning, Ph.D.

Summary

Interpersonal violence affects one in three women and nearly half of all children worldwide. Organized violence also displaces more than 1% of the global population each year. Each form of violence exists within broader systems of inequality, known as structural violence. Despite broad recognition of its harm, how violence functions across global contexts to affect biology, behavior and health over a lifetime remains poorly understood and often unaddressed. To help confront this, Koning studies how violence and stress are socially patterned and contribute to health inequities through biopsychosocial pathways throughout the life course and across generations. She works to promote social justice and human rights as essential components of public health. Her partners include communities, women’s organizations, government agencies and the United Nations. Together, they conduct collaborative research that informs policy and public health practice.

Koning has a background in population health, sociology, human biology and policy research. Her work focuses on the social and biological drivers of maternal and child health; structural violence and social stress; and the health impacts of migration and displacement. She has led or co-led numerous data collection projects using surveys, interviews and ethnographic methods. She applies quantitative methods from biostatistics, epidemiology and quasi-experimental design. Her research spans local, global and cross-border contexts, including Northern Nevada, North America and Southeast Asia.

Course taught

• CHS 701: Social and Behavioral Dimensions of Public Health (MPH course)
• CHS 796: MPH Capstone - Social and Behavioral Health
• CHS 729: Applied Multivariable Statistics in Social and Behavioral Health

Affiliations

Academic

• Faculty Affiliate, Population Center, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Faculty Affiliate, Department of Gender, Race, and Identity, University of Nevada, Reno, USA
• Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
• Research Affiliate, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
• Research Affiliate, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, IL, USA
• Research Affiliate, Center for Demography & Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
• Faculty Affiliate, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Professional

• Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science
• Population Association of America
• Society for Epidemiologic Research
• American Sociological Association (Sections: Medical Sociology)

Sponsored research projects

Current

• 2024: “ Racialized inequities in birth outcomes and maternal health following childbirth: the role of maternal early-life disadvantage, adolescent contexts, and pre-pregnancy stress.” National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21 HD115143). Principal investigator. Total costs to date: $176,255.

Completed

• 2022-2024: “The Health Inequities and Adverse Childhood Experiences Program of Healthy Nevada.” Community Foundation of Northern Nevada. Co-principal investigator (with Joseph Grzymski and Kristin Burgarello).
• 2021-2024: “Understanding and Forging Women’s Empowerment and Health in a Context of Exclusion: Gendered Statelessness and Legal Precarity among Highlanders in Thailand.” Center for Global Health Equity, University of Michigan. Co-principal investigator (with Laura Rozek, Cheryl Moyer, Amanda Flaim, Malee Sitthi Kriengkrai, and Ariya Svetamra). Total costs: $94,800.
• 2020-2023: “Early Origins of Health Disparities: Chronic Inflammation.” National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21 HD101757). Key personnel, (PI: Thomas McDade). Total costs: $237,000.
• 2020-2022: “Intergenerational Health Impacts of Interpersonal and Community-Based Violence: From Childbirth to Childbearing.” Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (Parent F32), National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (F32 HD102152). Principal investigator. Total costs: $201,112.

Selected publications

• Koning, S. M., Adam, E. K., Kapoor, A. & McDade, T. W. (2025). Echoes of conflict and displacement in maternal health: Life-course violence, timing, and maternal stress after childbirth at the northern Thailand-Myanmar border. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 171, 107189. 
• Read, R. W., Schlauch, K. A., Elhanan, G., Neveux, I., Koning, S. M., Cooper, T. & Grzymski, J. J. (2024). A study of impulsivity and adverse childhood experiences in a population health setting. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1447008.
• Koning, S. M., Kessler, C. L., Canli, T., Duman, E. A., Adam, E. K., Zinbarg, R., Craske, M. G., Stephens, J. E. & Vrshek-Schallhorn, S. (2024). Early-life adversity severity, timing, and context type are associated with SLC6A4 methylation in emerging adults: Results from a prospective cohort study. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 170, 107181.
• Ragsdale, H. B., Butler, M. S., Koning, S. M., Bas, I. N. & McDade, T. W. (2024). Lower socioeconomic status predicts increased proinflammatory signaling in late pregnancy: Evidence from a Filipino cohort. American Journal of Human Biology, 36(4), e24053. 
• Koning, S. M., Aronoff, J., Chen, S., Hargrove, T., Polos, J. & McDade, T. W. (2024). Violence victimization and young adult cardiometabolic health: The role of timing and social identity. Annals of Human Biology, 51(1), 2390834. 
• Erinoso, O., Watts, T., Koning, S. M., Lu, M., Wagner, K. D. & Pearson, J. L. (2024). Choice of smoking cessation products among people with substance use problems in the US: Findings from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study Wave 6. Addictive Behaviors, 158, 108104.
• Polos, J., Koning, S. M., Hargrove, T., Kershaw, K. N. & McDade, T. W. (2024). 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.
• Schlauch, K. A., Read, R. W., Koning, S. M., Neveux, I. & Grzymski, J. J. (2024). Using phenome-wide association studies and the SF-12 quality of life metric to identify profound consequences of adverse childhood experiences on adult mental and physical health in a northern Nevadan population. Frontiers in Psychiatry.
• Koning, S. M., Palloni, A., Nobles, J., Coxhead, I. & Fernald, L. (2024). The reach of fertility decline: A longitudinal analysis of human capital gains across generations. Genus.
• Koning, S. M., Polos, J., Kershaw, K. N. & McDade, T. W. (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), 735–744. 
• Polos, J., Koning, S. M. & McDade, T. W. (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, S. M., Flaim, A., Baldiga, L. & Feingold, D. A. (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, A., Feingold, D., Ahlquist, D. B., Koning, S. M., Sidonrusmee, P., Rozek, L. & Wisesjindawat-Fink, W. (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, T. W., Meyer, J. M., Koning, S. M. & Harris, K. M. (2021). Body mass and the epidemic of chronic inflammation in early mid-adulthood. Social Science & Medicine.
• Hunter, L. M., Koning, S. M., Fussell, E., King, B., Rishworth, A., Merdjanoff, A., Muttarak, R., Riosmena, F., Simon, D. H., Skop, E. & Van Den Hoek, J. (2021). Scales and sensitivities in climate vulnerability, migration, and health. Population and Environment, 1–21. 
• Koning, S. M., Scott, K., Palta, M. & Conway, J. (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, T. & Koning, S. M. (2021). Early origins of socioeconomic inequalities in chronic inflammation: Evaluating the contributions of low birth weight and short breastfeeding. Social Science & Medicine.
• Koning, S. 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, S. M. & Ehrenthal, D. B. (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, C. J., Koning, S. M. & Martinez-Donate, A. P. (2016). Moving beyond salmon bias: Mexican return migration and health selection. Demography, 53(6), 2005–2030. 
• Koning, S. 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, S. 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. in Population Health (Epidemiology emphasis), University of Wisconsin-Madison USA, 2018
• M.S. in Sociology (Demography emphasis), University of Wisconsin-Madison USA, 2018
• B.S. in Biology, Wheaton College, Illinois USA, 2008