Intimate Partner Violence (IPV): Interprofessional Strategies for Prevention and Response

Michele Beaulieu

Clinical Instructor and Director of Behavioral Health Education Programs

University of Maryland School of Social Work

As a licensed clinical social worker, Michele Beaulieu, LCSW-C, has spent the majority of her professional career providing direct clinical service in the fields of intimate partner violence and women’s health. In her role as a women’s health social worker, she was an important member of an interprofessional team dedicated to integrated care. After leaving direct service she coordinated a competitive grant received by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, from the Office of Women’s Health, training reproductive health professionals across Maryland, on how to screen and provide brief interventions for intimate partner violence and reproductive coercion to their patients. Since joining the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, she has taught the semester course on Intimate Partner Violence, co-developed and co-taught “Interprofessional Responses to Intimate Partner Violence” for graduate students in social work, law, medicine, nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy, as well as developed and presented seminars for social work students on intimate partner violence. She has also served on the Board of Directors of a local intimate partner/domestic violence agency for eight years.

Lisa Fedina

Assistant Professor

University of Michigan School of Social Work

Lisa Fedina, MSW, PhD, (she/her) researches the connections between different forms of violence across the lifespan (e.g., child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual assault), health and mental health outcomes. Her current studies are funded by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the National Institute on Aging and the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. This research examines socio-ecological risk and protective factors against suicide risk and adverse mental health outcomes associated with childhood and youth violence exposure, intimate partner violence and sexual assault. She is particularly interested in understanding how social policy and structural factors perpetuate inequalities in violence and health, and improving systems-level (e.g., criminal justice, healthcare) responses to gender-based violence. Fedina's research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals including the American Journal of Public Health and has been featured in outlets such as Psychology Today and USA Today. She has served on task forces to develop policy guidance for issues related to violence, including the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. Her social work practice background is in community organizing, policy analysis and advocacy, direct services to survivors of sexual assault, intimate partner violence and human trafficking.

Michelle L. Munro-Kramer

Assistant Professor, the Suzanne Bellinger Feetham Professor of Nursing, and Director of Global Programs

University of Michigan School of Nursing

Michelle L. Munro-Kramer, PhD, CNM, FNP-BC research focuses on trauma, comprehensive care of vulnerable populations, and missed opportunities for care within domestic and international contexts. Her research projects approach these topics using a trauma-informed and patient-centered lens. She uses mixed methods and participatory action research to understand the experiences of vulnerable populations in order to inform future intervention development. Dr. Munro-Kramer is currently evaluating a web-based app focused on healthy relationships, sexual violence, and intimate partner violence violence using a life skills perspective for college students. She is also working with colleagues to develop a sub-Saharan Africa gender-based violence prevention and research network among universities in Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Dr. Munro-Kramer developed the first undergraduate elective course at the University of Michigan focused on exclusively gender-based violence, Gender-Based Violence: From Theory to Action. The course is cross-listed to include students from multiple disciplines and incorporates lectures as well as experiential hours where students apply the principles from the course by volunteering with community-based organizations doing work related to gender-based violence.

Laurie M. Graham

Assistant Professor

University of Maryland School of Social Work

Laurie M. Graham, PhD, MSW came to her position as Assistant Professor with more than a decade of experience addressing dating/intimate partner and sexual violence intervention and prevention. As a practitioner, she worked for and collaborated with various community-based and governmental agencies to provide supportive services for survivors of dating/intimate partner and sexual violence and their families. Additionally, she developed and implemented dating and sexual violence prevention programming for adolescents in middle school settings and provided professional and volunteer training on various topics related to violence intervention and prevention. These experiences guide Dr. Graham’s research, which employs an intersectional, resilience-focused lens to understand violent behavior as well as how to best prevent various forms of violence and homicide in trauma-informed and culturally responsive ways. Dr. Graham is currently working on several projects related to these topics that include analyzing data from the National Violent Death Reporting System, systematically reviewing international literature on child homicide in the context of intimate partner violence, and supporting the development and evaluation of multiple community- and school-based violence prevention efforts. Dr. Graham teaches graduate courses related to social work practice with communities, organizations, and intimate partner violence.