Karyn Roberts

Background

About Karyn Roberts

Throughout my extensive healthcare career, initially as a pediatric nurse, then a nurse educator, and since December 2019 as a nurse scientist, I have witnessed firsthand the unequal treatment in healthcare and the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH), which led to health disparities and poor outcomes for my patients and families. My research aims to ensure that children with chronic conditions and their families achieve health equity, optimal health (as they define it), and quality of life. As a nurse scientist, my desire to make a significant and speedy impact on improving health equity for children and families has increased as I understand how SDOH drives health inequity and unequal treatment in healthcare. My research began seeking to understand how adolescents with severe obesity and their families experienced clinical weight management. This foundational work highlighted the unequal treatment experienced by these families due to multiple intersectional identities, including living in a bigger body, racialization, ethnicity, cultural views of food, lower socioeconomic status, and ableism. Systemic inequities in the SDOH exacerbate these identities. My work with children and families informed the philosophical approach as I consider my research questions, design, methods, implementation, and dissemination. My goal in building my teams and research program is to center the voices of diverse communities historically excluded from or exploited by scientific research to ensure justice and inclusion. I am skilled in community-based participatory research, qualitative/quantitative/mixed methods research design and analyses, dissemination and implementation science, and the ethical, legal, and social implications in nursing science, genomics, epigenomics, and social and behavioral health through the lens of family.