Founder and Executive Director, Center for Violence Prevention Research; Affiliate Faculty with the Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire
After completing her PhD in developmental psychology from the University of Georgia, Dr. Bright spent eight years on the faculty at the University of Florida in both the College of Medicine and College of Education. While at UF, she led evaluations of Florida’s Medicaid programs for children and developed a multidisciplinary research agenda around family violence and social determinants of health.
As her research program advanced, she found the most important part of her work to be partnerships with community-based, direct service providers. More and more she became disenchanted with the distance between her academic position and the community organizations she cared about. In short, the structure of university-based research was not supportive to community-based research. In 2021, Dr. Bright left academia to found the Center for Violence Prevention Research. Her goal was to create a research organization that was accessible to non-researchers and that conducted research with immediate implications for practice.
Dr. Bright’s work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the American Psychosomatic Society, AcademyHealth, and several not-for-profit organizations. She has published dozens of papers in high impact scientific journals including JAMA Pediatrics and the Morbidity Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Experience
2021–present
Founder and Executive Director, Center for Violence Prevention Research
2021–present
Affiliate, University of New Hampshire
2013–2021
Assistant Research Scientist, University of Florida
Education
2012
University of Georgia, PhD/Developmental Psychology
Publications
2024
Maternal Mortality Review Committees Should Take a Closer Look at Homicide Deaths, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
2023
Development and Implementation of a Preventive Intervention for Youth with Concerns About Their Sexual Thoughts and Behaviors: A Practitioner Narrative. , Journal of Prevention.
2023
School-based prevention education for children and youth with intellectual developmental disabilities., Child Abuse & Neglect
2023
Randomized Control Trial of a School-Based Curriculum that Teaches about Multiple Forms of Abuse, Child Maltreatment
2023
Parents' and professionals' perspectives on school-based maltreatment prevention education for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities., Child Abuse & Neglect
2022
Child abuse prevention education policies increase reports of child sexual abuse, Child Abuse & Neglect
2022
COVID-19: changing the care process for women’s health-the patient’s perspective, Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine
2022
Streamlining Universal Prenatal Screening for Social Determinants of Health, Maternal and Child Health Journal
2022
Preventing traumatic causes of maternal death, Journal of health care for the poor and underserved
2022
Bridging prenatal and pediatric care: a proposed simple yet novel approach to preventing family violence, The Journal of Pediatrics
2019
Association of Friday school report card release with Saturday incidence rates of agency-verified physical child abuse, JAMA pediatrics
Grants and Contracts
2023
Evaluating WhatsOK for the Primary Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse
Role:
Principal Investigator
Funding Source:
Oak Foundation
2022
Evaluating Circles of Safety® for the Primary Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse
Role:
Principal Investigator
Funding Source:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2021
Evaluating WhatsOK for the Primary Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse
Role:
Principal Investigator
Funding Source:
World Childhood Foundation
Professional Memberships
National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
Florida Maternal Mortality Review Committee, Mental Health Subcommittee
American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children