University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences |
The HVIP+ Community Model: A Community Violence Prevention Program in a Southern State
Research Topics
Dr. Nakita Lovelady, PhD, MPH is a Principal Investigator for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences project “The HVIP+ Community Model: A Community Violence Prevention Program in a Southern State.” She is a member of the Community Engagement and the Policy, Implementation and Economics workgroups for the Community Firearm Violence Prevention Network.
Dr. Lovelady is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in the College of Public Health; Founding Director of Arkansas’ first Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program, UAMS Project Heal; and a native of the Arkansas Delta. She is a 2023 Implementation Research Institute (IRI) Fellow at Washington University, a 2023 Graduate Fellow of the NIH Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials Summer Institute, and a current KL2 Scholar with an NCATS- funded CTSA, the UAMS Translational Research Institute.
Dr. Lovelady’s research is centered on investigating health disparities and community violence prevention, particularly developing and implementing multi-level public health interventions to improve mental and behavioral health outcomes and reduce gun violence among vulnerable racial-minority populations such as young African American men and their families. This includes linkage interventions that leverage peer support, enhance healthy coping, and improve access to structural/systemic supports to confront persistent post-traumatic stress among African American men in both institutional settings (i.e. hospitals, jails, prisons) and non-traditional community settings (i.e. churches, barbershops). She currently leads a hybrid effectiveness implementation pilot that evaluates a local HVIP within Arkansas’ only adult level one trauma center. She also leads formative research that explores adaptation for underserved rural communities. Most recently, she is MPI on an NIH funded study, The HVIP+ Community Model: A Community Violence Prevention Program in a Southern State, that partners with community to refine, expand, and test the HVIP model to prevent escalation and revictimization of gun violence in Central Arkansas. Dr. Lovelady has an extensive background in community engaged research dating back to her predoctoral years. She wholeheartedly believes that community is the essence of public health and key to reducing complex health disparities and achieving health equity. Her research hopes to effect real-world meaningful change among communities with the greatest need.
Affiliated Projects