Kristen Surles Named Family Planning Scholar
Kristen Surles, doctoral student in East Tennessee State University College of Public Healthhas been named an Emerging Scholar in Family Planning. She is a current Health Management and Policy doctoral student.
The Emerging Scholars in Family Planning grant is designed to help trainees establish a family planning research portfolio. As one of its core strategies, the Society of Family Planning Research Fund (SFPRF) is seeking to build and support an inclusive, multidisciplinary, skilled, and well-connected community of emerging scholars with a shared focus on family planning. Grant deliverables include the completion of a publishable scholarly research project, including those associated with a thesis or dissertation.
For her project, Surles is focusing on the experiences of youth at health departments and federally qualified health centers in South Carolina and Alabama in obtaining contraceptive care and clinics’ capacity to address youth-specific contraceptive needs.
”I am very pleased that Kristen is pursuing a topic that is so important, regionally,” said Dean Randy Wykoff “Her research has the potential to expand the work of CARE Women’s Health and improve the quality of life of women throughout the region.”
Kristen Surles is pursuing her goal of improving equitable access to care for teens to improve their overall well-being. Before returning to school, she worked as a counselor in underserved middle and high schools. It was here that her drive to improve access to care for teens was cemented and narrowed to ensuring that youth have the resources necessary to become autonomous.
Primarily, Surles is interested in improving equitable access to contraceptive services, comprehensive sex education, and mental health resources for youth. As a Graduate Assistant at ETSU, she is working for the Center for Applied Research and Evaluation in Women’s Health to better understand experiences in obtaining contraceptive care and clinic policies and practices impacting contraceptive care.