Desireé LaGrappe, MSN/MPH, RN is a Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and Health Network Coordinator of the La Trobe/ Austin Health Clinical School.  A public health nurse clinically accredited in Sexual and Reproductive Health,  Desireé is completing a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded PhD at the Judith Lumley Centre for women, children and family health research.   Towards improving clinical care, Desireé's PhD research focuses on how we measure controlling behaviours used to interfere with an individual's reproductive choices, for example contraceptive use, pregnancy and abortion, referred to as reproductive coercion and abuse. The PhD project is a part of SPHERE, the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Sexual and Reproductive Health for Women in Primary Care. Desireé has a strong commitment to advance gender equality through improving access to safe, effective, and quality reproductive and sexual health care and the prevention of gender based violence. Prior to joining La Trobe, she worked across the private, non-profit and government sectors designing and delivering clinical and evaluation research, as well as providing nursing care in acute, primary and community health settings. She has primarily worked in regional, rural and remote Australia and the United States, as well as select international experience in low- to middle-income countries (Vietnam, Perú, Dominican Republic, India, Tanzania, México and Honduras). In 2023, Desireé was awarded a Fulbright grant (U.S. Scholar) to serve as a Public Policy Fellow in Vietnam placed at Hanoi Medical University, Regional Hub of the WHO HRP Alliance for Research Capacity Strengthening in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Desireé is interested in capacity building and participatory research methods to support cross-cultural work in partnership with underserved populations. Her career aim is to contribute to high impact research for data driven policy change to promote gender and health equity. 

Her PhD supervisors are A/Prof Kristina Edvardsson, Prof Angela Taft, A/Prof Leesa Hooker, and A/Prof Laura Tarzia (external - University of Melbourne).