Carol L. Shirley, MA

Carol Shirley is a DrPH candidate at the Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (expected completion Fall 2026). She joined the Board of Directors for the Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research in April of 2025 and also serves as co-chair of their Connection, Engagement, and Outreach committee. For her doctoral portfolio project, Carol is currently working as a research assistant with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety's Office of Violence Prevention on the development of an implementation plan and technical assistance protocol to operationalize the NC Community Violence Prevention Strategic Plan released by Governor Roy Cooper in November of 2024. 

Carol also works as the public health communication specialist at the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center. In her role at UNC IPRC, she works on health literacy, health communication, and dissemination efforts for numerous projects including NC Vision Zero in partnership with the governor’s Highway Safety Program, CORE-NC Opioid Settlement Dashboards, UNC Street Drug Analysis Lab media relations, Building Trauma Informed Courts training program for the NC Administrative Office of the Courts, Injury Free NC Harm Reduction Academy, designing the NC Firearm Safety Teams manual, and contributing to a partnership with the NC Violence and Injury branch of the NC Department of Health and Human Services. She also manages the Center’s media relations, public relations, marketing communication, and organizational communication.

Carol has over 15 years’ experience in marketing and communications in higher education, primarily in health sciences and advanced through communications specialist, assistant director of communications, director of marketing, and director of marketing and communications positions before transitioning into her current public health communications role.