Dr. April Young is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Faculty Associate with the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research.
With colleagues and students, Dr. Young has been conducting substance use research in rural Kentucky for more than ten years. She has led five federally funded studies, including a project on innovative methods for recruiting people who use drugs, a private-public partnership to develop software for identifying infectious disease transmission networks, a multi-state initiative to improve clinical trial design in rural settings, and a cooperative agreement under the National Rural Opioid Initiative to examine harms associated with substance use in twelve Kentucky counties (see www.care2hope.org for more information).
She is also among the team of researchers at UK involved in the HEALing Communities Study in Kentucky funded by a historic $87 million grant awarded to the University of Kentucky to reduce opioid overdose deaths. In addition to working with rural Appalachian communities to improve their capacity to prevent overdose, HIV, and hepatitis C, she has also conducted research on HIV, sexual risk behavior, and vaccine acceptance in a variety of other settings, including the Philippines and Kenya.
Dr. Young's desire to teach and mentor students was the most influential factor in her decision to pursue an academic career, and she welcomes opportunities to engage students in her research and mentor students in their independent endeavors. Dr. Young has taught Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Global Health, and undergraduate social epidemiology and has also designed a course focused on the opioid crisis.
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The University of Kentucky College of Public Health (CPH) recently honored its faculty and staff at the college’s Summer Assembly.
For more than a decade, a University of Kentucky researcher has been developing new methods to help and empathetically serve people struggling with substance use disorder to reduce some of the harm that they experience.
The CARE2HOPE project, a collaborative effort between the University of Kentucky College of Public Health and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, has been named the winner of the American Public Health Association (APHA) Epidemiology Section’s 2023 Public Health Practice Award.
