
April Ballard is a mixed methods researcher and doctoral candidate in the Environmental Health Sciences PhD program. Her research integrates social and behavioral methodologies into environmental health, and seeks to identify and implement humanistic and pragramatic approaches to solve public health problems.
April began her research career in 2015 in Kentucky, first as a MPH student and then as a research assistant, project manager, and project coordinator, using mixed methods approaches to conduct research at the intersection of social, behavioral, and environmental determinants of health among people who use drugs in Appalachia. She began her doctoral training in 2018 at Emory and began applying previously acquired methods and training to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) research. During her PhD, she has expanded her research portfolio to include domestic work with people experiencing homelessness and international work with mothers and children in Latin America. Overall, her work seeks to understand how social (e.g., stigma, poverty) and environmental (e.g., resource distribution, water quality) conditions influence behaviors and health outcomes. Her dissertation research focuses on sociobehavioral and environmental determinants of child exposure to animals and their feces along an urban-rural gradient in Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador. She is a current research fellow in the Center for Global Safe Water and former Livingston Fellow and Agents of Change in Environmental Justice Fellow.
Areas of Interest
- Behavior and Health
- Community Based Research
- Diarrheal and Enteric Diseases
- Infectious Disease
- Rural Health
- Safe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
- Social Determinants of Health
Education
- BA 2014, Transylvania University
- MPH 2017, University of Kentucky
Publications
- Ballard AM, Cooper HLF, Young AM, Caruso BA, 2022, 'You feel how you look': exploring the impacts of unmet water, sanitation, and hygiene needs among rural people experiencing homelessness and their intersection with drug use, PLOS Water, 1, e0000019
- Fadanelli M, Cooper HLF, Freeman PR, Ballard AM, Ibragimov U, Young AM, 2022, A qualitative study on pharmacy policies toward over-the-counter syringe sales in a rural epicenter of US drug-related epidemics, Harm Reduction Journal, 19, 1-11
- Cooper HLF, Gross S, Klein E, Fadanelli M, Ballard AM, Lockard S, Batty E, Young AM, Ibragimov U, 2022, Capacity for sustainment of recently established syringe service programs in Appalachian Kentucky: The central role of staff champions, Drug and Alcohol Review, 41, 863-872
- Pravosud V, Ballard AM, Holloway IW, Young AM, 2022, Online partner seeking and sexual behaviors among men who have sex with men from small and midsized towns: a cross-sectional study, JMIR Formative Research, 6, e35056
- Ballard AM, Hoover AT, Rodriguez AV, Caruso BA, 2021, Emphasizing choice and autonomy in personal hygiene, menstrual health, and sexual health product distribution to people experiencing homelessness in Atlanta, Georgia during COVID-19, Health Promotion Practice, 22, 764-766
- Ibragimov U, Cooper KE, Batty E, Ballard AM, Fadanelli M, Gross SB, Klein EM, Lockard S, Young AM, Cooper HLF, 2021, Factors that influence enrollment in syringe service programs in rural areas: a qualitative study among program clients in Appalachian Kentucky, Harm Reduction Journal, 18, 1-15
- Ballard AM, Caruso BA, 2021, Public handwashing for basic hygiene in people experiencing homelessness, The Lancet Planetary Health, 5, e763
- Ballard AM, Haardoerfer R, Prood N, Mbagwu C, Cooper HLF, Young AM, 2021, Willingness to participate in at-home HIV testing among young adults who use opioids in rural Appalachia, AIDS and Behavior, 25, 699-708
- Young AM, Ballard AM, Cooper HLF, 2020, Novel recruitment methods for research among young adults in rural areas who use opioids: cookouts, coupons, and community-based staff, Public Health Reports, 135, 746-755
- Fadanelli M, Cloud DH, Ibragimov U, Ballard AM, Prood N, Young AM, Cooper HLF, 2020, People, places, and stigma: a qualitative study exploring the overdose risk environment in rural Kentucky, International Journal of Drug Policy, 85, 102588
- Crawford ND, Haardoerfer R, Cooper HLF, McKinnon I, Jones-Harrell C, Ballard AM, von Hellens SS, Young AM, 2019, Characterizing the rural opioid use environment in Kentucky using Google Earth: virtual audit, JMIR, 21, e14923
- Ballard AM, Cardwell T, Young AM, 2019, Fraud detection protocol for web-based research among men who have sex with men: development and descriptive evaluation, JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 5, e12344
- Cooper HLF, Crawford ND, Haardoerfer R, Prood N, Jones-Harrell C, Ibragimov U, Ballard AM, Young AM, 2019, Using web-based pin-drop maps to capture activity spaces among young adults who use drugs in rural areas: cross-sectional survey, JMIR Public Health an dSurveillance, 5, e13593
- Ballard AM, Cooper HLF, Young AM, 2019, Web-based eligibility quizzes to verify opioid use and county residence among rural young adults: eligibility screening results from a feasibility study, JMIR research protocols, 8, e12984