In 2007, Ann L. Coker, Ph.D., MPH became the inaugural Verizon Wireless Endowed Chair in the Center for Research on Violence Against Women at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. She serves as a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.  Dr. Coker also serves as Research Director for the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) program at the University of Kentucky and is the Interim Director of the Center for Research on Violence Against Women. She holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina.
Since 1994, Dr. Coker has engaged in numerous research projects addressing the health effects of partner violence and sexual violence. She instituted a universal screening protocol in the University’s Obstetrics Clinics in February 2008 and is in the process of evaluating the impact of screening on women and infants. She received a five-year cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to evaluate a statewide intervention to reduce dating and sexual violence using a randomized design in 26 high schools across Kentucky. This research was extended through NIH funding to determine the longer-term efficacy of the Green Dot - an active bystander intervention to prevent violence. Two additional CDC-funded research endeavors address the efficacy of bystander programming across 24 college campuses and the efficacy of combining alcohol abuse prevention and sexual violence prevention using a bystander approach. Dr. Coker also served as Principal Investigator on a National Institutes of Health grant for a five-year cohort study to explore how life stresses including partner and family support or interference may impact cancer care and well-being for women diagnosed with cancer in Kentucky and North Carolina.
This award from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Women's Health, is a collaborative agreement between researchers at both the University of Kentucky and the University of Virginia and will seek to evaluate ways to reduce maternal injury and deaths due to partner violence.  This grant is a five-year award of $1.5 million dollars.
 

  Congratulations Dr. Coker & team!