Karen Trister Grace, PhD, MSN, CNM, FACNM

Dr. Karen Trister Grace is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at George Mason University. Her program of research examines how gendered power and coercive dynamics shape reproductive autonomy, health outcomes, and health care responses, with a primary focus on intimate partner violence (IPV) and reproductive coercion (RC).

Dr. Grace is the lead editor of the 3rd edition of Prenatal & Postnatal Care: A Person-Centered Approach. She earned her PhD from Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Grounded in over 25 years of clinical practice as a certified nurse-midwife, Dr. Grace’s scholarship is informed by sustained experience in reproductive and perinatal care settings. This clinical background provides critical insight into how violence and coercion manifest in real-world health care encounters and supports a research program that integrates theory, empirical rigor, and practice-based knowledge to advance survivor-centered responses to IPV and RC across health and educational systems.

Dr. Grace also serves as the faculty advisor for George Mason University’s chapter of Nurses for Sexual & Reproductive Health.

Research 

Research Interests

• Reproductive coercion
• Intimate partner violence
• Pregnancy intention
• Health equity
• Sexual & reproductive health
• Stigmatizing language
• Nursing education

Select Publications

• Grace, K.T., Auerbach, S., Alspaugh, A., Rios, N. Altay, T., Kanselaar, S., & Mosley, E.A. (2026). Pregnancy, birth, neonatal, and mental health outcomes are minimally associated with pregnancy ambivalence, Studies in Family Planning. http://doi.org/10.1111/sifp.70045
• Grace, K.T., Gupta, J., Fay, K., Altay, T., Kanselaar, S., & Miller, E. (2025). Pregnancy, birth, and mental health outcomes associated with recent reproductive coercion and intimate partner violence in a crowd-sourced national sample. Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health, 70(5), 695-706. http://doi.org/10.1111/jmwh.13758. Selected as Editor’s Choice.
• Grace, K.T., Jeffers, N.K., Tringali, T. & Farley, C.L. (2025). The changing landscape of gendered language in pregnancy and birth: Editors’ experiences. Journal of Nursing Education, 64(3), 200-203. https://doi:10.3928/01484834-20240423-04
• Grace, K. T., & Miller, E. (2023). Future directions for reproductive coercion and abuse research. Reproductive Health, 20(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-022-01550-3 (Invited)
• Grace, K.T., Glass, N.E., Miller, E., Alexander, K.A., Holliday, C.N., Decker, M.R. (2022). Birth control sabotage motivation and measurement: A mixed-methods analysis among Latina women. Violence Against Women, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012221145292
• Grace, K.T., Decker, M. R., Holliday, C. N., Talis, J. M., & Miller, E. (2022). Reproductive coercion in college health clinic patients: Risk factors, care seeking and perpetration. Journal of Advanced Nursing, epub ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.15207 
• Grace, K. T., Holliday, C. N., Bevilacqua, K. G., Kaur, A., Miller, J., & Decker, M. R. (2022). Sexual and reproductive health and reproductive coercion in women victim/survivors receiving housing support. Journal of Family Violence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-022-00362-0
• Grace, K.T., Perrin, N.A., Clough, A., Miller, E., & Glass, N.E. (2020). Correlates of reproductive coercion among college women in abusive relationships: baseline data from the college safety study. Journal of American College Health, 1-8. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2020.1790570
• Grace, K.T., Decker, M.R., Alexander, K.A., Campbell, J., Miller, E. Perrin, N. & Glass, N. (2020). Reproductive coercion, intimate partner violence and unintended pregnancy among Latina women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, epub, 1-33. doi: 10.1177/0886260520922363
• Grace, K. T., Alexander, K. A., Jeffers, N. K., Miller, E., Decker, M. R., Campbell, J., & Glass, N. (2020). Experiences of reproductive coercion among Latina women and strategies for minimizing harm: “The path makes us strong”. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, 65(2): 248-256. doi: 10.1111/jmwh.13061
• Grace, K.T. & Anderson, J.C. (2016). Reproductive coercion: A systematic review. Journal of Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 19(4), 371-390. doi: 10.1177/1524838016663935 PMCID: 27535921

Affiliations and Memberships

• Member
  Maryland Maternal Mortality Review Team
   
• Survey Committee Chair
  Research and Standards Committee, American College of Nurse Midwives
   
• Consulting Editor, Sexual & Reproductive Health
  Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health

Honors and Awards

Fellow, American College of Nurse-Midwives, 2019
Outstanding Peer Reviewer, Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 2023

Degree

• PhD, Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 2019
• MSN, Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, 2000
• BSN, Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, 1998
• BA, Sociology, Barnard College, 1991