UNC Doctoral Student Wins IntraHealth International Award
March 24, 2017
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Josie Caves, doctoral student in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, has received IntraHealth International’s 2017 Raluca Iosif Intimate Partner Violence Research Award. The award will support Caves’ research on the factors that determine whether intimate partner violence manifests as homicide or homicide/suicide.
An estimated 30 percent of women experience intimate partner violence worldwide. The award aims to advance academic research to enhance the understanding of intimate partner violence as a global health problem and a human rights violation.
“It is so wonderful that organizations such as IntraHealth are supporting research and interventions to prevent intimate partner violence,” Caves said. “This is the most grotesque and obvious form of gender inequality, and the ubiquitous nature of this form of violence demonstrates that we are still in our infancy of understanding its prevention. I am so honored to be the first recipient of this award.”
Caves’ research is informed by her work in both international and local contexts. She has studied treatment adherence for people living with HIV, has worked with the Kibera Community Self-Help Program in Nairobi, Kenya and has studied the impact of human papillomavirus screenings for women in rural Nicaragua. Most recently, she served as a research assistant in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Injury and Violence Prevention Branch.
The research award was established in 2016 to honor Raluca Iosif, a program development manager at IntraHealth who was killed in an act of violence in 2015.