04/01/2020

Shabbar Ranapurwala, PhD, MPH, BHMS

Member

Shabbar I. Ranapurwala (he/him), PhD, MPH, BHMS, trained as a physician and epidemiologist, is Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at UNC Chapel Hill, core faculty at UNC Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC), Senior Research Scholar at Child Trends, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa Department of Epidemiology. He conducts research to prevent opioid disorders and overdoses, suicides, intimate partner violence and firearm violence and examines racial inequities throughout his work. He serves as a PI on multiple grants, including R01s, funded by the CDC, NIH, FDA, and the DOJ and has also served on multiple NIH review panels. At UNC, he teaches epidemiologic methods and intervention epidemiology and mentors graduate students in Epidemiology. He also serves on UNC IPRC's Equity working group. At SAVIR, Dr. Ranapurwala co-chairs the Anti-racism Interest Group (AIG) and is a member of the Science and Research Committee.

Dr. Ranapurwala has been a SAVIR member since 2015. During this time, he has been a member of SAVIR Science and Research Committee and co-led the review and adjudication of science awards during at least two SAVIR annual conferences. Since October 2020, he has also served as the co-chair for SAVIR’s newly formed Anti-racism Interest Group (AIG). In this position he plans and facilitates activities related to inclusive excellence in research and membership of SAVIR. During the past year as AIG co-chair, he has co-led the development of the “SAVIR Conference Presenter Guidelines to Address Health Inequity and Racism,” “Code of Conduct: For Members & Conference Attendees,” and the “SAVIR Statement on Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” that was voted on and adopted by the SAVIR board of directors. He also collaborates with SAVIR’s executive, membership, and other committees to implement ways with which we can diversify SAVIR membership and increase diversity in SAVIR leadership. Along with SAVIR AIG team, he is leading work to document varying, and sometimes potentially inappropriate, methods related to use of “race” variable in injury and violence literature. This work has led to racial disparities research-related recommendations for two leading scientific journals in epidemiology and injury and violence prevention.