Department of Epidemiology

Faculty

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Ann Coker, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Research and Professor
859-323-6758

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Ann L. Coker is the Associate Dean for Research, Professor and Endowed Chair in the Center for Research on Violence Against Women in the Departments of Epidemiology in the College of Public Health and Obstetrics and Gynecology in the College of Medicine, University of Kentucky. Dr. Coker holds an MPH in population studies from the University of Texas Health Science Center and a PhD in Epidemiology, from the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Prior to being recruited to UK in 2007, Dr. Coker served as Associate and Full Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health in Houston (2002-2007) and Assistant and Associate Professor at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Coker’s roles in the College of Public Health include teaching graduate level courses in epidemiology, advising and mentoring graduate students for their capstones, practicum experiences and dissertations, and serving on APT committee. She has mentored 10 doctoral students and chaired the master’s committee for over students. Dr. Coker has served as course director for the following courses: Advanced Methods in Epidemiology, Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, Violence in America: A Public Health Perspective, Introduction to Epidemiology, Epidemiologic concepts in selected disease or health conditions, and Epidemiologic Research Methods 1-3. In the College of Medicine, Dr. Coker’s primary responsibilities are focused on conducting research and mentoring junior faculty, residents and medical students.

Research Interests

Dr. Coker is a nationally recognized expert in the effect of partner violence on women’s health. Dr. Coker has published extensively on the health consequences of partner violence based on a large clinic-based cross-sectional study funded by the Centers for Disease Control (US4CCU419014; Coker, PI). Dr. Coker led one of 10 funded sites for the CDC demonstration projects for prevention of domestic and sexual violence (US4CCU419014). Most recently, Dr. Coker completed a large multi-ethnic cohort study of community college students to identify the role of personality dimensions on the prevalence and incidence of partner violence victimization and perpetration (CDC 1R49CE000606). She is currently directly the evaluation of a state-wide multi-site primary prevention intervention in high schools students focusing on preventing dating and sexual violence. Funded by NCI Dr. Coker has recently completed a project (5R21CA114330) linking data from the Texas Cancer Registry with the state Medicare and Medicaid data and Texas Vital Records to determine survival times. The purpose of this project was to better understand racial or ethnic differences in cervical cancer survival in a multi-ethnic population. Dr. Coker is continuing research on health disparities here in Kentucky with the Kentucky Cancer Registry and Program.