Baylor's largest funded NIH scholar is in Social Work
Baylor’s largest funded National Institutes of Health (NIH) scholar, Dr. Danielle Parrish, is in the Garland School of Social Work, and we could not be more proud of her work and the difference her work is making in the lives of marginalized and underserved young women. Her work focuses on empowering young women who are at risk of unplanned pregnancy, substance-exposed pregnancy and HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases with information and support that helps them make their own best choices for their future and their health.
As we strengthened our research focus in recent years, funding for research has grown, which broadens the impact of our research has as well. Research is not only what scientists do in a lab; it is what social scientists do in our community as we seek to make a difference in people’s lives.
As part of this, we have increased our federally funded research. The NIH is the largest and most significant funder of health-related research. A large NIH-supported grant seeks to improve health outcomes, bolster the economy, and reduces the costly burden of care for families. NIH funding also supports jobs and innovations that advance the healthcare and social service sectors of society.
The long-term goal of Dr. Parrish’s research is to develop and test interventions that reduce the risk of substance-exposed pregnancy and HIV/STIs for female youth involved with the justice system and in other community settings. Her most current research project is called CHOICES-TEEN (CT) and it is testing the efficacy of CHOICES-TEEN, a brief Telehealth intervention whose delivery is informed by the youth in the study. The pilot study of this intervention was very promising, and if found to be effective in the current study, this efficient and bundled risk reduction intervention has the potential to reach beyond typical service barriers to reduce the individual and societal costs of teen pregnancy, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, marijuana-exposed pregnancy, and HIV. This work is also profound given recent trends of reduced substance use and sexual activity of adolescents nationally and locally following COVID-19, while these behavioral trends continue to be high among young women involved in the juvenile justice system.
Dr. Parrish is a clear representative of what it means for Baylor to be a preeminent Christian research university. The Psalms remind us that God “hears the needy and does not despise God’s own people who are prisoners.” Our Christian scriptures, in Hebrews, teach us to “remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since we also are in the body.” Thank you, Dr. Parrish, for your faithful life of service, teaching, and scholarship and the difference it makes in our world.