A Vote for Health: Preventing Violence

Dr. Apryl Alexander is the Metrolina Distinguished Scholar in Health and Public Policy at UNC Charlotte. She also serves as Director of the UNC Charlotte Violence Prevention Center. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the Florida Institute of Technology with concentrations in forensic psychology and child and family therapy. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA). Dr. Alexander’s research and clinical work focus on violence and victimization, human sexuality, and trauma-informed and culturally informed practice. She is an award-winning researcher, and her work has been published in several leading journals. Dr. Alexander has been interviewed by numerous media outlets about her research and advocacy work, including Essence Magazine, The Washington Post, USA Today, and NBC Nightly News.

Dr. Brooks-Russell is an associate professor at the Colorado School of Public Health and is the director of the Injury & Violence Prevention Center. Her PhD is from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, after which she completed a postdoc at NIH. Her interests include adolescent health with a focus on preventing injury outcomes such as violence and suicide prevention, as well as the prevention of impaired driving.

Shannon Frattaroli, PhD ’99, MPH ’94, translates evidence about injury and violence prevention into policies and practices that will create safe places for people to thrive.

Her research interests include understanding the role of policy in improving the health of populations, with particular attention to the implementation of public health policies and the role of advocacy and communities in the policy process. Current projects include: addressing the opioid epidemic through innovative injury prevention approaches, understanding residential sprinkler policies as a strategy for preventing house fire death and injury, and maximizing the revolution in auto safety currently underway with the advances in automation and safe systems design.

Dr. Temple is a professor, licensed psychologist, and the Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the School of Behavioral Health Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where he also holds the Betty and Rose Pfefferbaum Chair in Child Mass Trauma and Resilience. As the Founding Director of the Center for Violence Prevention, his research focuses on the prevention of interpersonal and community violence, including firearm violence. In addition to his four current R01s, he has been continuously federally funded by the National Institute of Justice, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since finishing his training. He has over 200 peer-reviewed scholarly publications in a variety of high-impact journals including JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, Pediatrics, and the Journal of Adolescent Health. He recently co-edited a book on adolescent dating violence, co-chaired the Texas Task Force on Domestic Violence, serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Prevention Research, and served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Psychological Association. Locally, he served for 7 years as the Vice President of the Galveston Independent School District Board of Trustees. His work has been featured on Forbes, CNN, New York Times, TIME, Washington Post, and even the satirical website, The Onion.