Dr. Kao regularly teaches and researches in the following four areas: (1) rights, human and animal, (2) religion in the public sphere in the U.S., (3) ecofeminism, (4) Asian American Christianity. She is the author of Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World (Georgetown UP, 2011), the co-editor of Asian American Christian Ethics: Voices, Methods Issues (Baylor UP, 2015) and the co-editor of Encountering the Sacred: Feminist Reflections on Women’s Lives (T&T Clark, 2018). She is currently completing a book on the feminist Christian ethics of surrogacy (Stanford UP).

At Claremont School of Theology, she is a two-time recipient of the Faculty Teaching Award (2010-2011, 2016-2017) and is the first Asian American woman to have been tenured at her institution as well as promoted to (full) professor. While on leave in AY 2020-2022, she is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University.

Her other professional activities include current or past service on editorial boards (the Journal of Religious Ethics, the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics), steering committee membership in the American Academy of Religion (Animals and Religion; Law, Religion, and Culture), a term on the Board (Society of Christian Ethics; the Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry (PANAAWTM), and co-convening of Interest/Working Groups of the Society of Christian Ethics (the Asian/Asian American Working Group, the Animal Ethics Interest Group).

You can learn more about her/her work at drgracekao.com.