Joanne Klevens MD, MPH, PhD

Joanne Klevens, MD, Ph.D., 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, evaluating trials of preventive interventions for the perpetration of partner violence and youth violence among Latinos, evaluating 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. Dr. Klevens received her Ph.D. 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.