Danelle Stevens-Watkins
Assistant Vice President for Research (Diversity and Inclusion)
Dr. Stevens-Watkins (she/her) earned her PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Kentucky in 2008 and her MA in Clinical Psychology in 2004 from Spalding University. She completed an APA accredited internship in the residential drug abuse treatment program at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington in 2007. She is a core faculty member of the Center for Health Equity Transformation and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Drug and Alcohol Research. Broadly, her research focuses on health disparities and barriers to service utilization among African American populations. She has current projects focused on breastfeeding and maternal morbidity among African American women. In addition, she has over a decade of consecutive funding from NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) as PI or Co-I. Her projects have focused on criminality, drug use, and HIV risk among African American women. She completed an NIH (K08) Mentored Career Development Award with a research emphasis on the dynamic interaction between anxiety, depression, drug abuse, and HIV risk behaviors among African American male prisoners. She currently has an NIH R01 from NIDA titled: Research Examining Factors Associated with the Opioid Crisis among Under-served African Americans (REFOCUS).
Dr. Stevens-Watkins teaches Practicum, Counseling Techniques, Multicultural Psychology, Psychopathology, and Substance Abuse Counseling. She is a Licensed Psychologist in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and her theoretical orientation is an integration of rational emotive behavioral therapy and interpersonal process therapy. She is a member of the Graduate Faculty.
Create a Research Alliance
Building upon ongoing work, Dr. Stevens-Watkins serves as a lead for the Create a Research Alliance initiative within the DEI Implementation Plan, which supports this continuous endeavor.
UNITE RPA
The UNITE (UNited In True racial Equity) research priority area was established as part of the University of Kentucky’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Master Plan (August 2020) to bring together diverse groups of investigators, trainees, colleges and research groups with a focus on research surrounding racial equity.
Danelle Stevens-Watkins Leading UK’s Newest Effort to Impact Change
University of Kentucky alum and native Kentuckian Danelle Stevens-Watkins is impacting change in the Commonwealth and beyond by uniting research and scholarship focused on achieving racial equity.
UK Research Team Uniquely Poised to Reach Black American Communities, Reduce Health Disparities
The populations Danelle Stevens-Watkins, Ph.D., seeks to help are often difficult to reach. It is a common predicament in health disparity research.