Headshot of Dr. MehariInstitute for Firearm Injury Prevention & Clinical Psychology Candidate Job Talk

Dr. Krista Mehari

Assistant Professor
University of Southern Alabama

Monday, February 7, 2022
10-11am: Presentation
11-11:30am: Q&A
This talk will be recorded and live-streamed via Zoom.

 

Youth violence is a major public health problem that disproportionately impacts Black youth. However, universal violence prevention programs tend to be least effective in schools and communities with the highest rates of violence, perhaps due to poor fit between the programs and the needs and assets of the communities of focus. I will briefly describe my work that identifies systems-level predictors of violence involvement and points to a need for community-level interventions to reduce violence. Participatory action research is a non-traditional research strategy in which members of the communities of focus are partners in the research process. Such a strategy empowers communities and has the potential to create effective, place-based interventions that build on the strengths and capacities of a community and are feasible, attractive, and sustainable. I will describe my recent and ongoing research that uses participatory action research to understand violence and to develop, implement, and test community-based prevention strategies. I will also describe directions for future research that explicitly include moving towards equity and justice as strategies to reduce race-based disparities in violence.

Recording from presentation:

Screen shot of recording