Assistant Professor, Health Behavior and Health Education
Founder and Director, UAMS Project Heal
Education
2022 – Postdoctoral Fellow, UAMS, NIDA T32 Addiction Research Training
2019 – PhD, UAMS, Health Promotion and Prevention Research
2012 – MPH, UAMS, Health Behavior and Health Education
2009 – BS, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Biology
Research Interests
- Community Violence Intervention
- Health Disparities and Health Equity
- Mental Health, Trauma, and Injury Prevention
- Community-based Participatory Research
- Dissemination and Implementation Research
Dr. Lovelady’s research is centered on investigating health disparities and community violence prevention, particularly developing and implementing multi-level public health interventions to improve mental and behavioral health outcomes and reduce gun violence among vulnerable racial-minority populations such as young African American men and their families. This includes exploring linkage interventions that leverage peer support, enhance healthy coping, and improve access to structural/systemic supports to confront persistent post-traumatic stress among African American men in both institutional settings (i.e. hospitals, jails, prisons) and non-traditional community settings (i.e. churches, barbershops). She currently leads a hybrid effectiveness implementation pilot that evaluates Arkansas’ first Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program and formative research that explores its rural adaptation. Her research hopes to effect real-world meaningful change among communities with the greatest need.
Recent Publications
Swindle T, Baloh J, Landes SJ, Lovelady NN, Vincenzo JL, Hamilton AB, Zielinski MJ, Teeter BS, Gorvine MM, Curran GM. Evidence-based quality improvement (EBQI) in the pre-implementation phase: Key steps and activities. Frontiers in Health Services. 2023;3:1. doi:10.3389/FRHS.2023.1155693
Mueller KL, Lovelady NN, Ranney ML. Firearm injuries and death: a United States epidemic with public health solutions. PLOS Global Public Health. 2023;3(5): e0001913. doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.PGPH.0001913
Porter A, Lovelady N, Allison MK. Changing trends in suicide: young Black Arkansans are at risk. Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society. 2023;119(3):86-87.
Wical W, Harfouche M, Lovelady N, Aguilar N, Ross D, Richardson JB. Exploring emergent barriers to hospital-based violence intervention programming during the COVID-19 pandemic. Preventive Medicine. 2022 Sep 6:107232. doi:10.1016/J.YPMED.2022.107232
Lovelady NN, Zaller ND, Stewart MK, Cheney AM, Porter A, Haynes TF. Characterizing firearm assault injury among young Black men using Arkansas hospital discharge data. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. March 2021. doi:10.1177/0886260521997947