Martha Coulter
Title: Professor and Director, The Harrell Center
Specialty: Maternal and child health, family violence.
Contact Information:
USF College of Public Health
CPR 2133
Phone: (813) 974-6692
E-mail this USF Collaborative Partner
Details:
Topics of expertise:
Maternal and child health, family violence.
Educational and professional background:
Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Louisiana State University. Master’s degree in Social Work from Tulane University. Master’s in Public Health from the University of California Berkeley. Dr. P.H. in Maternal and Child Health from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Came to USF in 1985. Has worked at USF on: child sexual abuse project at the USF College of Medicine; maternal and child health at USF Public Health; and started the USF James and Jennifer Harrell Center at to study family violence. Worked for one year as a deputy state health director in Tallahassee to develop the Part H Program, a federal program to design assessment and intervention for children ages 0-3 with suspected disabilities. In 1998 the USF Harrell Center started to study family violence, and Coulter became director. She worked for the Division of Health Services in North Carolina as statewide head of departmental evaluation centers. The centers evaluated children ages 0-6 with disabilities.
Highlight your Collaborative and community-oriented grants:
“When people and charged with domestic violence, and there is a jury trial in Hillsborough County, the conviction rate is extremely low. The Collaborative provided a grant to interview jurors after the trial. Interviews indicated that further exploration is needed and that some jurors feel that the crimes weren’t serious enough to warrant conviction. I’ve also worked on grants to look at intimate partner violence, recidivism rates of offenders, and how many intimate partner violence offenders have children living with them. I have a grant from the Institute of Justice that looks at women moving from welfare to work and how family violence and family health affect their ability to keep employment. Internationally, I’m working with leaders in the Dominican Republic to develop their system to provide shelters for abused women and programs to help abused children. Most of my international work is with the School of Public Health in Medillin, Colombia. PAHO has funded a study to identify maltreated children and intervene with teachers and families.”
What have you learned from your research that you wish every professional knew?
“Violence is the cause of a significant number of health and mental health problems in children, adolescents and adults. It is essential that we have prevention programs and identify early on violence problems of any kind to provide intervention.”
What have you learned from your research that you wish every student knew?
“Data in the field of family violence is absolutely essential, but in order to do good research you have to create situations where community agencies are truly partners and not just data collection sites. The objective of community agencies is more therapeutic in nature and it’s difficult to engage in research-gathering that is beneficial to them and the community.”
What do you think is the biggest issue in your field right now?
“There is a huge overlap between spouse abuse and child maltreatment. People don’t recognize the pervasive nature of family violence and community violence and the impact it has in people’s lives. It’s one of the most serious health problems. There needs to be a focused effort to provide national funds in prevention and intervention in this area.”
