SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Laura Suzuki is a public health nurse who has spent most of her career in a large local health department managing maternal and child health services for a diverse population of vulnerable women and families. She has worked for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA and the World Health Organization in Africa. Laura’s research interests focus on gender-based violence among marginalized women including immigrants and ethnic minorities. Her dissertation centers on the phenomenon of reproductive coercion and the extent of autonomy in decision-making related to sexual and reproductive health among low-income Latina women. She is an active member of the American Public Health Association, Public Health Nursing and serves on the APHA Gun Violence Prevention Workgroup. She is a member of the Massachusetts Public Health Association and Massachusetts Association of Public Health Nurses. She has previously served on the Maternal Child Health Advisory Committee for NACCHO. She earned her BSN from the University of Virginia and her MPH from the Johns Hopkins University. She currently is a doctoral candidate at Boston College William F. Connell