overview

• Dr. Cheryl Kovar joined East Carolina University College of Nursing as the Concentration Director for the MSN Leadership Concentration in February, 2015. In December 2015, she was named the Concentration Director for the Post Masters DNP Leadership program in addition to her role at the MSN level. On July 1, 2018 she stepped down as the Concentration Director for both of these programs and returned to her academic teaching position in the Advanced Nursing Practice &; Education Department. In summer 2023, she transferred to the Department of Nursing Science. In August 2023, she obtained her Certification in Public Health(CPH) and is the only faculty member in the College Of Nursing with this certification. Prior to these positions, she was the state nurse consultant for the Title X Family Planning program with the North Carolina Division of Public Health from 2007 to 2015. In addition to her current position as an associate professor, she is a consultant for the Office of Adolescent Health as well as a reviewer and panel chair for the Office of Adolescent Health and Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) grant review process. Dr. Kovar is a national speaker on reproductive and adolescent health issues. She brings over 30 years of experience as a registered nurse with 25 years at the advanced practice level as a Maternal-Child Clinical Nurse Specialist, and over 20 of those years, specifically working in public health. Her area of research focuses on reproductive and sexual health issues, including adolescent high-risk behaviors. She served three years as the Primary Investigator for a grant through the CDC and DHHS Communicable Disease Branch leading the BILCORE-PRO project, which focused on billing, coding and seeking reimbursement from third party payers for STD services at the local health department level. The grant was funded 2015-2017 for a total amount of over $800,000. In 2020, with a researcher from Indiana University School of Medicine as CO-I, she conducted a pilot study looking at reproductive coercion among adolescents and young adult women in NC and IN. Current research as of 2024 is now looking at reproductive coercion among pregnant and/or parenting adolescent females in three counties in NC. These results will be used to support the development of a gamification intervention with this population and reproductive coercion in 2025.