Executive Leadership and Expert Bios

Joanne Klevens, MD, PhD, MPH

Epidemiologist, Sexual Violence and Child Maltreatment Team, Research and Evaluation Branch, Division of Violence Prevention

Areas of Expertise

• Research methodology and evaluation
• Social determinants of health
• Links between different forms of violence

Joanne Klevens, MD, PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist with the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) in CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC). She provides technical assistance to colleagues, programs, and grantees on research methodology; evaluation; prevention of child abuse and neglect, sexual violence, partner violence, and youth violence; and addressing social determinants of health. She is particularly interested in how policy changes influence rates of violence.

Dr. Klevens started at CDC in 2001. During her career at the CDC, she has conducted or collaborated in research evaluating the impact and essential components of Coordinated Community Responses to partner violence, evaluation trials of preventive interventions for the perpetration of partner violence and youth violence among Latinos, evaluation of two state-wide interventions to prevent abusive head trauma, evaluation of the impact of screening for intimate partner violence in primary care, examination of the impact of policies affecting the social determinants of child abuse and neglect, evaluation of California’s paid family leave policy on abusive head trauma, and evaluation of Early Head Start’s impact on child maltreatment. Currently, she leads the evaluation of the Essentials for Childhood Initiative, as well as the Division’s efforts to tackle social determinants of health.

Before coming to CDC, Dr. Klevens worked as a researcher and consultant in Colombia, South America where she provided technical assistance to the city of Medellín in the development and evaluation of interventions to prevent violence. She also provided technical assistance to the Colombian Institute of Forensic Medicine and the city of Bogotá Health Department in the development of an injury surveillance system. Her research in Colombia includes studies on the epidemiology and prevention of youth violence, child abuse and neglect, and intimate partner violence.

Dr. Klevens received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, her MPH from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and her MD from the National University in Bogotá.

She has over 70 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and books. She has also delivered numerous presentations at international, national, and state conferences and meetings about violence as a public health problem, risk and protective factors of violence, and prevention strategies based on the best available evidence.