Kathleen Grove

Associate Professor, Sociology

I began teaching at Palomar College in Fall 2005.  Since I have been here, I have taught Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, Introduction to Women’s Studies, Human Sexuality, and Sociology of Health and Illness. I am currently coordinator of the Service Learning Program.

My interest in health and illness began when I was a graduate student at UCSD.  I wrote my dissertation about nurse practitioners, interviewing students in training and NPs working in the community.   I was interested in why women would leave good jobs as RN’s (registered nurses) and go back to school to train as NPs.   In addition to in-depth interviews, I also observed NPs working at Kaiser and in community clinics in San Diego.

When I received my Ph.D. in Sociology, I began teaching at UCSD and USD.   I taught courses in Medical Sociology, the Sociology of Health Care Issues, and Aging.   I also was asked to teach a class on Human Sexuality and this began my interest in AIDS.   In the early 1990s I began to interview women in San Diego who were living with HIV.   I wanted to understand how they coped with this stigmatizing disease, who they told about their illness, and how having HIV affected their roles as mothers and women.  I also helped to organize the first regional conference on Women and HIV in 1991 and then began teaching courses on Women and HIV/AIDS and AIDS as a Global Epidemic.

My work as a teacher has often been linked to work in the community.  Two topics that I have studied are disability and aging.  I have been interested in the full inclusion movement for children with disabilities and published the results of a study on this topic in 1997.  My work on Aging led me to write grants to fund a respite program for caregivers of the elderly living in the Ocean Beach-Point Loma area. 

I believe that students should be actively involved in the learning process.  I employ in-class exercises, active discussions, debates, written assignments, hands-on projects, and bring in guest speakers to enhance student learning.  For me, teaching is an honor and a pleasure.

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