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Our Administrative Core provides leadership for our Center, including setting long-term strategic goals; monitoring day-to-day activities; developing new research initiatives; and interacting with a variety of community practitioners. This Core is led by Dr. Marshall, Dr. Moracco, and Ms. Dixon, who have a combined total of more than 80 years of injury and violence prevention experience.
IPRC Director, Professor of Epidemiology
Dr. Marshall is an epidemiologist who has conducted research in the field of injury and violence prevention for the past 30 years. His research interests include: musculoskeletal injuries, opioid overdose, occupational injury, homicide and violence prevention, traumatic brain injury, road and other transportation injury, injuries in the military, and surveillance methods. He is author or co-author on more than 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He leads, and is a member of, multiple interdisciplinary research teams in the field of injury and violence prevention. For over a decade, he has led a team of civilian and military researchers as PI of the JUMP-ACL study, a multi-center prospective cohort study of biomechanics, biomarkers, lower extremity injuries, and musculoskeletal conditions funded by National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. He has a strong commitment to research-practice integration and uses the principles of engaged scholarship to advance the ongoing translation of research findings into policy, programs, and practice. He interacts with a wide range of injury prevention providers and practitioners, from community advocacy groups through to acute care health care providers and injury and violence prevention professionals in state health departments. Dr. Marshall has been a faculty member at the IPRC since 1999 and has served as the IPRC Director since 2011. Prior to becoming the IPRC’s Director, he co-directed a sports injury research center (Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention) from 2008- 2011. In collaboration with Dr. Moracco and Ms. Dixon, he oversees the strategic direction of the IPRC and all aspects of daily operations of the Center. Link to Profile
IPRC Associate Director, Associate Professor of Health Behavior
As a researcher and a public health practitioner, Dr. Moracco is skilled in intervention development and evaluation research and an expert in engaging with communities and community-based organizations. Her research focuses on the primary and secondary prevention of gender-based violence in the U.S. and global settings using qualitative and quantitative methods. Dr. Moracco’s has served as co-investigator on studies focused on the effectiveness of conditional cash transfers on pregnant women’s prevention of mother-to-child transmission adherence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Currently, she is the PI for a study funded by the National Institute of Justice evaluating “best practices” for domestic violence protective orders in NC, a study examining firearm surrender and confiscation in domestic violence protective order cases, and a pilot study examining the effectiveness of group-based peer support to decrease social isolation and increase social connectedness among newly-resettled female refugees from the DRC. She is also a co-PI for a CDC-funded study evaluating an ongoing Rape Prevention Education-funded program, Wise Guys: The Next Level, which addresses primary prevention of sexual perpetration by addressing known risk and protective factors. Previously she led assessments and served as co-investigator on a range of studies within North Carolina, and globally. Dr. Moracco previously led evaluations of primary prevention programs for intimate partner violence and legislation restricting access to firearms in dating violence protective order cases. She is a member of the NC Administrative Office of the Court’s Domestic Violence Committee and a research fellow at UNC-G’s Center for New North Carolinians. Dr. Moracco has served as director of the master’s program in Health Behavior since 2012. Link to Profile
Director of Training and Outreach
Ms. Dixon is responsible for overseeing the Outreach and Training cores to support the 1) dissemination of evidence-based injury and violence prevention strategies and information; 2) provision of training and educational opportunities for academic and non-academic injury prevention professionals; and 3) capacity development of communities to develop, implement, and evaluate injury and violence prevention strategies. She has over 20 years of experience as a program developer, implementer, and consultant working in violence prevention for vulnerable populations in the U.S. and international emergency, post-conflict, and development settings. She has extensive experience using best practices and internationally-recognized guidance to develop programs and training packages for integration into community-based and public health settings (e.g., health care clinics, mental health agencies, law enforcement agencies), both in the U.S. and abroad. Much of her work has involved providing technical assistance, training, and other capacity building support to U.S. government and nongovernmental organization staff, foreign government ministry officials and civil society organizations, as well as vulnerable populations at-risk of violence and HIV (e.g., women and adolescent girls, sex workers, LGBTQ+). Ms. Dixon also has experience managing research studies, including managing a CDC-funded RCT of a teen dating violence prevention intervention (Moms and Teens for Safe Dates), one of the few proven strategies for teen dating violence prevention; and conducting assessments to inform the development and implementation of community-based violence prevention and response interventions.
Research Scientist
Dr. Austin’s research focuses on understanding risk and protective factors in child health and development and evaluation of population-level strategies to promote child and family wellbeing, with a specific focus on the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect and on substance use among pregnant and parenting women. She has experience and interest in applying advanced statistical methods, linking existing survey and administrative data sources, and partnering with state and local agencies to advance the injury and violence prevention research and practice agenda.
Research Scientist
Mike Dolan Fliss has worked in public health epidemiology and informatics at the county and state level in North Carolina since 2010. He graduated from Duke University with a double major in computer science and philosophy, then from UNC-CH with a Master’s of Social Work with a concentration in management and community practice, with separate certificates from both Duke and UNC in Nonprofit Management and Leadership. He completed his Master’s of Biomedical Health Informatics (Public Health Informatics concentration) and PhD in Epidemiology at UNC Chapel Hill. His current work is in social, injury, environmental, and spatial epidemiology, and includes opioid overdose, violent deaths, tobacco and alcohol environment control, child maltreatment, industrial animal farms, disparities in policing, and public health informatics.
Senior Research Scientist, IPRC | Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology
Dr. Dasgupta is an epidemiologist who focuses on opioid use and associated problems. He has been involved in prescription drug abuse and overdose surveillance for over 15 years, including as a field researcher conducting interviews, large database analytics, pharmaceutical risk management, and community-based interventions. His research focus areas are: 1) understanding medical and nonmedical use of opioid analgesics and heroin, and 2) increasing patient participation in adverse event reporting for medical products through digital channels. He has expertise in translating research to practice and policy and has served as an advisor on the opioid crisis to the US Food and Drug Administration, CDC, WHO, and local and state health authorities.
Assistant Professor, Department of Exercise and Sport Science
Dr. Kerr is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina and serves as the Research Director for the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes. Dr. Kerr’s expertise provide leadership in traumatic brain injury research at IPRC. His research focuses on the evaluation of injury prevention strategies related to concussion and heat stroke, with a focus on injury surveillance and survey research, and the epidemiology and prevention of injury in populations at high risk, including young athletes who are especially vulnerable to sports related traumatic brain injuries. Link to Profile
L. R. Preyer Distinguished Professor of Social Work
Dr. Macy is a researcher and social worker with 16 years of experience conducting community-engaged studies that focus on intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking. She is committed to preventing violence among vulnerable populations and has used her prior experience as a community-based social worker to inform her research in violence prevention and to improving services for survivors of violence. She has conducted investigations in various community settings in collaboration with survivors, service providers, and policymakers. Dr. Macy is experienced in leading projects and teams that have developed manuals, toolkits, and outcomes to promote community-based and survivor-centered research. Link to Profile
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
Dr. Naumann’s work focuses on understanding risk factors and trends of unintentional injuries and evaluating injury prevention interventions, largely in the areas of road traffic injury and opioid overdose. She has experience and interest in applying complex systems science methods to injury prevention. As part of a long-standing partnership between IPRC and the NC Division of Public Health (DPH), she has collaborated on both road safety and opioid overdose-related research, including policy evaluations, with state partners within DPH. Before moving to North Carolina, she worked in CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention. Link to Profile
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
Dr. Ranapurwala conducts advanced analytical research in injury and violence prevention. His work utilizes a diverse set of epidemiological study designs including cluster randomized trials, retrospective cohorts, case control and ecologic studies. His substantive areas of research include the prevention of opioid poisoning, violence, and occupational injury. Currently, he uses large existing claims data, electronic health records, public safety, and death records databases to examine opioid use disorders and overdose in North Carolina in the context of state and local interventions. He is a lead and a co-investigator on two opioid overdose prevention grants funded by the CDC and has completed another CDC funded opioid project. Link to Profile
Assistant Professor of Exercise and Sport Science
Prior to joining the faculty in Exercise and Sport Science, Dr. Register-Mihalik served as the Senior Research Associate in the Emergency Services Institute at WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, NC. Her research interests include the negative consequences, prevention, education and clinical management of sport and recreationally related traumatic brain injury (TBI). Her primary work centers on improved care, education and behavior change concerning TBI among physically active children and adolescents. Dr. Register-Mihalik was the 2018 National Athletic Trainers’ Association Foundation New Investigator Award recipient. Currently, she serves on the Brain Injury Association of North Carolina’s Board of Directors. Link to Profile
Assistant Professor of Maternal and Child Health
The focus of Dr. Shanahan’s research is to improve the health and developmental trajectories of children. Her research focuses on adverse events that potentially influence these trajectories and prevent children from realizing their full potential. Child maltreatment is one obvious insult to the health and development of children. Documenting the magnitude, etiology, and impact of child maltreatment has been a major focus of her work. Examining prevention strategies to reduce child abuse and neglect has become another main focal point of her research. Link to Profile
Professor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Waller is the Director for the Carolina Center for Health Informatics (CCHI) and Principle Investigator/Science Director for the North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool (NC DETECT). She has worked in public health surveillance for more than 25 years and in injury prevention and control for over 35 years. She collaborates with the IPRC and the NC Injury & Violence Prevention Branch on data driven responses to the opioid overdose epidemic in NC, as well as broader injury and violence surveillance efforts. Dr. Waller also works with the NC Governor’s Highway Safety Program on an ongoing effort to link motor vehicle crash data with health outcomes. Dr. Waller works with the NC Division of Public Health on a variety of projects using emergency department visit and EMS response data for public health surveillance, including ongoing collaborations with public health practitioners at the state and local levels to develop surveillance case definitions and reports using NC DETECT data. Dr. Waller is interested in using data effectively to inform public health response and prevention activities. Link to Profile
Adjunct Associate Professor of Health Behavior
Assistant Professor of Social Medicine
Associate Professor of Surgery
Adjunct Professor of Health Behavior
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
Dean of College of Arts and Science, Professor of Exercise and Sport Science
Associate Professor Health Policy and Management
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Associate Professor of Epidemiology
Assistant Professor of Exercise and Sport Science
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Chair of City and Regional Planning
Professor of Maternal and Child Health
Associate Professor of Exercise and Sport Science
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Professor of Biostatistics
Adjunct Professor of Health Behavior
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Health Behavior
President and CEO, NC Institute of Medicine, Associate Professor of Family Medicine
