Dr. Shanta Dube’s Aggregate Research Experience and Knowledge on the Profound Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Will Help Optimize Interventions & Positive Outcomes Among Those Exposed to Childhood Domestic Violence (CDV) in Metro Atlanta
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA. (July 11, 2018) – The Childhood Domestic Violence Association is pleased to announce that Shanta R. Dube, PhD, MPH – a distinguished researcher and key contributor to the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study – has joined the Association’s Georgia Chapter Board of Advisors. Dr. Dube will utilize her extensive expertise in early childhood development and the profound, often lifelong impact of major childhood trauma on a life to advance the efforts, reach, and Association’s positive impact in Metro Atlanta and statewide. |
“There are no vaccinations to prevent the hidden scourge of domestic violence and related adversities. Our society as a whole needs increased education and awareness about the occurrence and impact of these early life adversities. Individuals affected are in need of realizing the capacity they hold in order to be able to heal and recover,” said Dr. Dube.
Childhood Domestic Violence (CDV) is when a person grows up living in a home with violence between their parents or violence towards a parent, perhaps from a stepparent or significant other. The violence can be physical, nonphysical or both and is not directed towards the child. According to three decades of research, CDV can have a profound and lasting impact on some or all key areas of life. As they grow into adulthood, those impacted may struggle with their physical health, mental wellbeing, behaviors, and relationships. They are 6x more likely to commit suicide, 50% more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, and 74% more likely to commit a violent crime. According to UNICEF, growing up with domestic violence is “the single best predictor of children becoming either perpetrators or victims of domestic violence” later in life. It gets passed down across generations.
UNICEF calls it “one of the most pervasive human rights challenges of our time,” underscoring the urgency for awareness and effective solutions. Yet, there is almost no awareness of CDV (<15%), and most who experience it don’t even know what to call it. In addition, no widely practiced solutions exist to help the 1 in 7 impacted.
The Childhood Domestic Violence Association is the leading nonprofit dedicated exclusively to those who experience CDV, working to raise awareness of CDV as an issue affecting hundreds of millions, empower caring adults, communities and organizations to serve as a lifeline for impacted children, and educate adults who experienced CDV about its long-term impact, so they can strive to overcome it. Using the leading research and best known practices in the field, the Association has developed and works to deploy groundbreaking, scalable tools that have never existed before. Through partnerships with leading organizations nationwide that directly touch the lives of children or adults who are growing up/grew up with CDV, these resources are used to educate, train, and empower them and those who work with them, so they can reclaim their lives and futures.
The Georgia Chapter of the Childhood Domestic Violence Association works to build universal awareness of CDV as a widespread social issue with a profound impact in the community, galvanize community involvement, and deploy the Association’s unprecedented, evidence-based resources to help as many impacted as possible.
Dr. Dube, who is the newest addition to the Association’s Georgia Chapter Board of Advisors, is Associate Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Georgia State University (GSU). She received her BS in Microbiology and BA in Music from University of Maryland, College Park, MPH in Epidemiology from The George Washington University, and PhD in Health Promotion and Behavior from the University of Georgia.
From 1999 to 2007, Dr. Dube served as one of the early research investigators on the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Her research focused on the long-term impact of childhood traumatic stress on behavioral and health outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. Her research has also centered around the contribution of domestic violence and related childhood adversities on mental health and substance use in adolescence and adulthood. In addition, Dr. Dube has also served as Lead Health Scientist in the Office on Smoking and Health, CDC, where she made key contributions, including the first report on smoking and mental illness at the national and state levels, introduction of electronic cigarette surveillance and monitoring, and leadership on CDC-FDA collaborations for surveillance programs.
Dr. Dube joined Georgia State University in 2014, where her current work focuses on educating the public about the science of childhood adversity and health, and the use of evidence-based Integrative Health approaches for healing and resilience. She developed a training curriculum titled, “The Why and How of Trauma-Informed Care”, that utilizes her published framework outlining a 2-generational, 3-level prevention approach for addressing ACEs using mind-body practices such as meditation and Ayurveda Self-Care. Dr. Dube also serves as Associate Editor for Child Abuse & Neglect. She’s nationally and internationally recognized for her research, which includes over 100 publications and reports. While on the Georgia Chapter Board of CDVA, Dr. Dube will bring her expertise to help educate professionals and the public on the multi-generational long-term consequences of experiencing domestic violence in childhood, with a focus on enhancing healing, recovery, and resiliency into adulthood.
The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Study was among the most sweeping studies to date to track and evaluate long-term outcomes after experiencing one or multiple major childhood adversities in the early formative years. Conducted by Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 1990s, the study enrolled over 17,000 participants who experienced one or more major childhood adversities and conducted long-term follow up to evaluate health and behavioral outcomes. The study showed a definitive correlation between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and poor health and behavioral outcomes later in life. It is frequently cited as a milestone in the field, which has resulted in a multitude of scientific articles, conference and workshop presentations on ACEs and their impact.
The Childhood Domestic Violence Association’s Georgia Chapter Board of Advisors is proud and honored to welcome Dr. Dube as its newest additional and looks forward to working with her to extend its reach and positive impact statewide. For a full list of the Association’s Georgia Chapter Board of Advisors, visit www.Georgiacdv.org.
For more information about Dr. Dube, CDV, the Association or the Georgia Chapter, or to arrange a press interviews with Dr. Dube, contact Anna Radev at anna@cdv.org / 212-330-8016.