About

Dr. Shanti Kulkarni has been an advocate, program developer, and researcher in the violence against women movement for close to 20 years. Early in her career, she provided clinical services to sexual assault survivors and was the Director of Sexual Assault Services at a rape crisis program. In 2004, she received her PhD in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin, with a portfolio in Women and Gender Studies (Women’s Health and Relationships). She has been a social work faculty member at UNC Charlotte since 2006.

Dr. Kulkarni’s research program focuses broadly on the impact of trauma, violence, and abuse upon vulnerable populations and seeks to positively influence practitioner behavior, service delivery systems, and policy in ways that best promote survivor healing. She has received funding from the state of North Carolina since 2007 to develop and implement innovative teen dating violence prevention initiatives. She is inspired by her youth collaborators who bring creativity and energy to the hard work of social change.