Beth Moracco, PhD, MPH
Director, UNC Injury Prevention Research Center
Faculty Chair, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Associate Professor of Health Behavior, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
As a researcher and a public health practitioner, Beth Moracco, Phd, MPH, 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.
Moracco 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.
Moracco 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. She previously led assessments and served as co-investigator on a range of studies within North Carolina, and globally. She also led evaluations of primary prevention programs for intimate partner violence and legislation restricting access to firearms in dating violence protective order cases. Moracco has served as director of the master’s program in Health Behavior a the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health since 2012.