Dr. Shanti Kulkarni Earns Grant to Promote Healthy Relationships

The NIH (National Institutes of Health) through NICHD (National Institute for Child and Human Development) has awarded Dr. Shanti Kulkarni a multi-year grant. The research is on “Shaping the Message: African American Youth and their Families Use Media to Promote Violence Free Dating Relationships.” This is a three-year grant in collaboration with Mecklenburg County and Johnson C. Smith University.

Dr. Shanti Kulkarni has been an advocate, program developer, and researcher in the violence against women movement for close to 20 years. Early in her career, she provided clinical services to sexual assault survivors and was the Director of Sexual Assault Services at a rape crisis program. In 2004, she received her PhD in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin, with a portfolio in Women and Gender Studies (Women’s Health and Relationships). She has been a social work faculty member at UNC Charlotte since 2006

Dr. Kulkarni’s research focuses broadly on the impact of trauma, violence, and abuse upon vulnerable populations and seeks to positively influence practitioner behavior, service delivery systems, and policy in ways that best promote survivor healing. She engages in interdisciplinary community-based research utilizing qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies to build and expand scientific knowledge.

Her recent work has involved working closely with youth to develop and implement innovative teen dating violence prevention initiatives, such as My Next Girlfriend and LoveSpeaksOut. These projects partner with youth to create and deliver health education about healthy relationships.