Starting her career as a nurse and nurse-midwife on the island of Saipan, Kristen VanderEnde then moved with her family to Kenya where she did volunteer work for a year, It was her experience in these places with women without economic resources to provide them with health care that prompted her to do her part in advocating justice for women  in healthcare globally. She is now in her fourth year as a Doctoral student at Emory University. Her research interest is in community-level factors related to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). She is particularly interested in this area of Bangladesh, particularly its rural areas.