Big Blue Public Health Illumination Seminar Series Bringing Evidence-Based Violence Prevention to Communities

Ann Coker, PhD, MPH, is the Verizon Wireless Endowed Chair and Executive Director of the Center for Research on Violence Against Women. Dr. Coker is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine and holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina. For the past decade, Dr. Coker has served as the Research Director for the University of Kentucky’s Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) mentorship program. She also maintains a faculty associate appointment with the Center on Trauma and Children. All her research at UK has focused on the impact of violence against women, its impact on health, and approaches to mitigate or prevent these related forms of violence using rigorous research designs. Sexual violence, including sexual harassment, has been a focus of her team’s intervention and prevention research, which uses engaged bystander strategies for middle school, high school, and college levels. Most recently, her team has focused on efforts to reduce pregnancy-associated causes of maternal deaths and injuries.

Danielle Davidov, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health at West Virginia University. She has two decades of experience in trauma and violence prevention, specializing in qualitative and mixed methods to improve system-level responses to trauma, violence, and co-occurring challenges like substance use and mental health in rural communities. She has served as qualitative lead or consultant on several large-scale, federally funded projects, including WV AWARE, a PCORI-funded initiative to enhance intimate partner violence screening in healthcare settings; the CDC-funded NFP IPV Project, which tested an intervention to reduce violence and improve quality of life for women in home visitation programs; the CDC-funded mcBEE Study, a mixed methods evaluation of bystander programs across 25 U.S. college campuses; and a statewide Children’s Mental Health Evaluation to strengthen services for children with serious emotional and behavioral needs in West Virginia. Her work is grounded in community-engaged approaches that center the voices of survivors and stakeholders, and has been recognized with the Purple Ribbon Award from the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence for outstanding commitment to collaborative work to end violence against women in the state. In addition to her research, she mentors students across academic levels and teaches courses in intervention design, qualitative and mixed methods, and public health prevention.

Sarah DeGue, PhD, is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Violence Prevention Solutions, LLC, and a former Senior Scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A national expert in the etiology and prevention of sexual and gender-based violence, Dr. DeGue served at CDC for over 17 years, including 10 years as the Scientific Lead for CDC’s Dating Matters® teen dating violence prevention initiative.

Her work at CDC spanned key efforts to advance the science and practice of violence prevention, including systematic reviews of effective strategies, risk and protective factor research, development of CDC’s first technical package to prevent sexual violence, and an economic analysis of the societal cost of sexual violence. She has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications and government reports.

As the lead for Dating Matters, Dr. DeGue directed the development, evaluation, and national dissemination of the first comprehensive, evidence-based model for teen dating violence prevention in the U.S. Her more recent work addressed emerging topics such as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on violence, deaths involving law enforcement, and public health approaches to preventing targeted violence and terrorism.

Dr. DeGue now works with communities, organizations, and institutions nationwide to advance evidence-based violence prevention strategies through Violence Prevention Solutions. She also serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

She earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with a specialization in forensic evaluation, and her BA from the University of Michigan. Over her career, she has advised the White House, U.S. Departments of Education, Defense, and Homeland Security, the U.S. Army and Air Force, and numerous universities and health departments. She has served on multiple federal and interagency task forces, bringing this experience to her consulting and research work.

Emily Clear, MPH, is a Research Program Administrator at the University of Kentucky in both the Center for Research on Violence Against Women and the Center for Public Health Systems & Services in the College of Public Health.

She is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and public health researcher with interests in violence prevention, population health, maternal-child health, and adolescent pregnancy. Emily works with UK faculty, staff, and students on various grants, contracts, and initiatives to prevent child sex trafficking, advance women’s health, and examine cross-sector collaboration and the integration of health and community-based services to address population health. She has over 40 peer-reviewed publications, 15 years of project management and grant administration experience, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Public Health in UK College of Public Health.