Dr. Coates received her PhD in 2021 from the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health after successfully defending her dissertation, titled “Affecting Absenteeism Through School-Based Health Services Delivery: A Configurational Comparative Methods Study of Oregon’s Public Secondary Schools." Though the literature widely acknowledges the intersectionality between health and education, no comprehensive overview existed to describe how different structures and processes within a school work (or do not work) together to lead to higher or lower student absenteeism. Her research filled that gap by exploring how the structural elements of the school system and the process elements of school-based health delivery can mitigate the ways in which health barriers to learning affect a student’s ability to attend school regularly. In addition to the ways her work supports the intersectionality of health and education, this research was also the first to use coincidence analysis (CNA) as the primary research method in a doctoral dissertation.
Dr. Coates currently works for CareOregon, as a QI Program Administrator, and at Portland State University, as an Adjunct Assistant Professor. Most of her career has been spent in the nonprofit field, as she has more than 20 years of experience, as staff, a volunteer, and as a Board member