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Ijeoma Opara, PhD, LMSW, MPH

Associate Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences)
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Additional Titles

Director, The SASH Lab, Yale School of Public Health

Co-Director of Yale AIDS Prevention Training Program (T32), Yale School of Public Health

Associate Director, Justice, Community Capacity, Equity (JuCCE) Core, Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, Yale University

About

Titles

Associate Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences)

Director, The SASH Lab, Yale School of Public Health; Co-Director of Yale AIDS Prevention Training Program (T32), Yale School of Public Health; Associate Director, Justice, Community Capacity, Equity (JuCCE) Core, Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, Yale University

Biography

Dr. Ijeoma Opara is an Associate Professor of Public Health in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at the School of Public Health. She is also the founder and director of the Substance Abuse & Sexual Health Lab (www.oparalab.org). Her research interests focus on HIV/AIDS, STI, and substance use prevention for urban youth, racial and gender specific prevention interventions for Black girls, and community-based participatory research with urban youth. Dr. Opara has received many awards for her work in prevention research from the American Public Health Association, National Council on Family Relations, and AcademyHealth. Most recently, Dr. Opara was named the 2023 recipient of the NIDA Racial Equity Initiative Visionary Pioneer Award to conduct community-based participatory work in Paterson and East Orange, New Jersey. In 2020, Dr. Opara was named the NIH Director's Early Independence Award, which funds her 5-year community-based study on youth substance use, mental health outcomes, and neighborhoods in Paterson, New Jersey. The Early Independence Award is given to junior scientists through the High Risk-High Reward program, whom who have demonstrated exceptional ability to engage in independent research and Dr. Opara was the first social worker to ever receive this award.

Dr. Opara's teaching experiences includes her former appointment as an Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare from 2019-2021, where she taught graduate-level child and family social work practice courses. She also worked as an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of Social Work teaching a graduate level adolescent development course and at Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning & Social Policy where she taught an undergraduate social justice in public health course.

Dr. Opara received her PhD in Family Science & Human Development at Montclair State University, a Master of Social Work from New York University (with a specialization in Primary & Behavioral Health Integrated Care), a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from New York Medical College, and a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from New Jersey City University. During her doctoral studies, Dr. Opara received an external pre-doctoral fellowship from the Behavioral Sciences Training on Drug Abuse Research housed at New York University funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse which funded her dissertation research and doctoral training.

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

NIDA T-32 funded pre-doctoral fellow
New York University (2019)
PhD
Montclair State University, Family Science & Human Development (2019)
MSW
New York University (2014)
MPH
New York Medical College, Epidemiology (2011)
BA
New Jersey City University, Psychology (2009)

Research

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Ijeoma Opara's published research.

Publications

2024

2023

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • honor

    Community Impact Award

  • honor

    NIDA Pioneer Award

  • honor

    Woman of Impact Award

  • honor

    Distinguished Student Mentoring Award

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    NIH Loan Repayment Program

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