Kristina M. Scharp Ph.D.

Kristina Scharp, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of communication at the University of Washington and a director of the Family Communication and Relationships Lab. She studies difficult family transitions such as parent-child estrangement and the processes by which family members cope with their distress. Featured in journals such as Communication Research, Human Communication Research, Family Relations, and the Journal of Family Communication, she is particularly interested in ways people navigate entering and exiting the family, as in the case of foster/open adoption, pre-natal/post-partum depression, disability diagnoses, and family distancing. Her research has won top papers at both the International and National Communication Associations and has garnered attention from outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, PBS, NPR, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Ultimately, she hopes that her research can shed light on disenfranchised family experiences and the family members who often have to respond to cultural stigma.