Education

PhD Epidemiology, University of Washington, 2000
MPH Epidemiology, University of Washington, 1996

Contact

206-685-1716
mkernic@uw.edu

Bio

Dr. Kernic specializes in family violence research, with interest areas on the antecedents and consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV) on victims and their children; and empirical research on the civil, criminal and family law processes and interventions involving families with a history of intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. She has interest and expertise in advanced research methods including time-dependent survival analyses, propensity score matching procedures, multiple imputation procedures, and the use of extensive and diverse administrative databases (often in conjunction with research-driven data collection methods) and has served as epidemiologic lead on a number of injury epidemiology research grants.

Dr. Kernic has served as Principal Investigator (PI) on a number of National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) research grants. Currently, she is PI on an NIJ study examining the impact of parenting evaluators on the legal protections awarded in custody and visitation agreements between parents with a history of intimate partner violence and the degree to which those legal protections are associated with post-divorce IPV and child maltreatment.

She is also PI on a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study examining post-divorce IPV and child maltreatment associated with attorney representation of the IPV victim and secondary to the legal protections awarded in divorce cases involving children in common with an IPV abusive spouse.

Beginning in January 2018, Dr. Kernic will also serve as Research PI in an NIJ-sponsored cooperative research study with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Domestic Violence Unit’s Prosecuting Attorney and PI, David Martin, JD. This study will examine the factors and resource needs of victims involved in IPV criminal cases and civil domestic violence protection order filings and the subsequent prosecutorial and recidivistic outcomes of these civil and criminal cases.

Dr. Kernic has a primary appointment in the Department of Epidemiology; serves as Interim Chair of the Epidemiology Department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee; and is an Affiliate faculty member with the UWSPH Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health.