Assistant Professor, Maternal and Child Health Department
Senior Research Scientist, Injury Prevention Research Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:
Email: shanahan@unc.edu

Research Interests & Goals:
Dr. Shanahan is an assistant professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health and a research scientist at the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center.

The underlying motivation for Dr. Shanahan’s research is to improve the health and developmental trajectories of children. Her research focuses on adverse events that potentially influence these trajectories and prevent children from realizing their full potential. Child maltreatment is one obvious insult to the health and development of children and, therefore, documenting the magnitude, etiology, and impact of child maltreatment has been a focus of Dr. Shanahan’s work. Examining prevention strategies to reduce child abuse and neglect has become another main focal point of her research. She has evaluated prevention strategies at both the family and the policy level. Dr. Shanahan is also interested in examining the impact of prescription and illicit opioid use on parenting and, subsequently, child development, as well as the effects of experiencing intimate partner violence. She is also committed to translating research into tangible products and policies that have an impact on children and families.