Image of Dr. Karen A. Johnson
Award: Early Career Faculty Service and Leadership in Social Work Education Award
Karen A. Johnson, PhD, MSW, Associate Professor at the University of Alabama's School of Social Work and Visiting Scholar at Yale University, is a distinguished 2023 Boston Congress of Public Health, Health Innovator to Watch. Dr. Johnson has a Ph.D. from Columbia University's School of Social Work and post-doctoral training in Implementation Science from Columbia University / New York State Psychiatric Institute and Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Johnson is the Associate Director of Community Sciences for the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research and the founder of the HEAL-Lab located within the University of Alabama School of Social Work. She actively partners with social work students, system-involved populations, and system providers to improve health equity, and develop and implement evidence-based interventions and practices.
With over 20 years of direct practice experience, Dr. Johnson’s work is inspired by the challenges she encountered early in her career across various practice settings trying to implement evidence-based practices. With funding from sources such as the National Institutes of Health through the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research, The Bureau of Justice Assistance, the New York State Office of Mental Health, and Alabama Transportation Institute, she is dedicated to bridging education, research, and practice gaps.
Currently, Dr. Johnson has eight active research studies, all of which focus on improving the health and well-being of racially and other minoritized populations. Her studies include:
With over 20 years of direct practice experience, Dr. Johnson’s work is inspired by the challenges she encountered early in her career across various practice settings trying to implement evidence-based practices. With funding from sources such as the National Institutes of Health through the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research, The Bureau of Justice Assistance, the New York State Office of Mental Health, and Alabama Transportation Institute, she is dedicated to bridging education, research, and practice gaps.
Currently, Dr. Johnson has eight active research studies, all of which focus on improving the health and well-being of racially and other minoritized populations. Her studies include:
- Project Possibilities Community Stigma aims to address the stigma faced by probation and parole personnel and participants across multiple criminal legal system locations.
- Dr. Johnson also leads Projects E-WORTH South, E-WORTH South – Rural, and E-WORTH South Bridging the Trust Gap, in which she collaborates with Black women on probation and parole who reside in rural and sub-urban areas, and their providers, to tailor and pilot an evidence-based HIV/STI prevention intervention for delivery in the Deep South. Among other strategies utilized, Dr. Johnson leverages artificial intelligence to optimize HIV prevention efforts and implementation effectiveness.
- In historic Selma, Alabama, Project Family Preservation provides individualized family services to prevent foster care placements and reduce future criminal justice involvement.
- Dr. Johnson’s work also impacts populations residing in the Caribbean through Project Pruning the Root. This project, located in Barbados, focuses on addressing trauma experienced by court-involved youth, aiming to build trauma-informed care acumen in probation and parole officers serving this population.