Krisjon Rae Olson, Ph.D.

Social scientist; Policy, Technology, Medicine
Krisjon Rae Olson

A palliated heart grows collaterals no surgeon planned. A town after genocide grows what the peace did not fund. I study that growth.

What does it take to remain, when repair is not on offer?

Work with us, or join our research.

Lab

Laboratory for Critical Ethnography of Medicine, Science, and the Life Course (LabCEMS)

A lab that studies the intervention science of hospitals, humanitarian aid, and the state – for and by children – and how it impacts their life course

We study how children participate in, and outlive, interventions inside the hospital and beyond. Ethnography, joined to health services research, disability studies, and implementation science. Tools and solutions created through research with youth, families and clinicians.

Today surgical repair (palliation) and social reparation (truth commissions and tribunals) are often planned and yet the labor that sustains them goes unmeasured.

In plain words: after a hospital or a government says a child has been helped, someone still keeps that child well every day. We study who, how, and to what effect.

Projects

Every project follows the same questions at a different point in a life.

Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues in the Opportunity to Reach Individuals with Genetic dyslipidemia during Infancy and the Newborn period to find Familial Hypercholesterolemia

What families do with a child's cholesterol result, and how results should be returned.

One in 300 people has familial hypercholesterolemia. Only 10% in the United States are diagnosed. Peterson AL, Horner V, Lasarev MR, Zhang X, Humphries SE, Steiner RD, Benoy M, Tumolo J, Held PK, Shao X. Genetic diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia in residual newborn dried blood spots. JAMA Cardiol 2025;10(12):1315–1319.

Find out more about ORIGIN FH ELSI.

Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies

How families decide among advanced cardiac therapies when a child is in intensive care.

Four in five children on a ventricular assist device are alive a year later. Edelson JB et al., The ACTION VAD registry: a collective five-year experience. J Heart Lung Transplant 2025;44(4):530–540.

Accessible Congenital Heart Disease Survivor Transition Readiness for Long-Term Health

Accessible transition to adult care for youth with congenital heart disease.

Up to 61% of young adults with congenital heart disease leave cardiac care. Mackie AS, Ionescu-Ittu R, Therrien J, Pilote L, Abrahamowicz M, Marelli AJ. Children and adults with congenital heart disease lost to follow-up: who and when? Circulation 2009;120(4):302–309. More than half will have a disability in their lifetime. Allen CC, Swanson BL, Zhang X, Coller RJ, Olson KR. Quality improvement identifies healthcare transition disparities in adolescents with congenital heart disease and disabilities. Pediatr Qual Saf 2024;9(3):e732.

Ciencia, Infancia, Medicina y Antropología crítica

Children in the aftermath of war and peace.

“We survived the war … and now we must live with the peace.” Olson K. Waging peace: a new generation of Ixiles confronts the debts of war in Guatemala. Journal of Genocide Research 2016;18(2–3):343–359.

“Health interventions and habilitation increasingly emphasize independence for children with disabilities – but much as these ideas move from think tanks and clinics into everyday life they are taking on new meaning…. disability value is [instead] here developed in joint dependence and mutual effort, where future possibilities are conditioned on the removal of barriers….” Olson K. Hope disabled: value, stigma, and self-help among parents of children with disabilities. In: Colligan S, Jaysane-Darr A, eds. Disabled Anthropologists in the Field. Routledge; 2025.

Team

Partners set the questions with us. Trainees spend time where the questions live: a clinic, a kitchen, an office where a grant is written. Clinicians and data scientists test what we find. We produce tools, measures, and policies built by youth, families, physicians and scientists.

Training

Training opportunities for doctoral and postdoctoral fellows, pediatric fellows, genetic counseling students, and qualified undergraduates.

Team science, in brief. No one discipline can see a whole life. Clinicians, social scientists, economists, data scientists, community partners, youth, and families work as one team, from the first questions to publication. Credit follows work, and authorship is shared.

Writing

selected

ORCID   Google Scholar

Talks

selected

Public scholarship

selected

Engagement

Teaching

Dialogue with Movement. A monthly seminar held in motion on questions announced at a walk, talk, and roll session. Join Dialogue with Movement.

Coding Sessions. Mixed methods coding and data analysis, three sessions a week.

Courses Taught

selected

Contact

krisjon.olson@wisc.edu

Children (from Guatemala and Wisconsin) watch a game. A mural of a young woman wearing Ixil dress in the background with faded paint.

Field sites

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Wisconsin Partnership Program, the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and others.

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