Colleen Ray, PhD

Dr. Colleen Ray is an experienced and enthusiastic violence prevention researcher with wide ranging expertise in research methods and data analyses. She uses her educational grounding in sociology, criminal justice, and psychology to explore and better understand risks and correlates of violence. Dr. Ray has experience and interest in a wide array of topical areas within the field of violence prevention and is especially passionate about identifying and reducing disparities. She has both training and experience in the range of the methodological process including quantitative and qualitative design, data collection, cleaning, analysis, Interpretation and dissemination. Dr. Ray pursues the ultimate goal of preventing violence for all, but is especially passionate about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people experiencing homelessness. 

Throughout her training, Dr. Ray quickly developed a passion for social science methodology, a passion which led her to choose the topic as her area of focus during her doctoral work. She took advanced courses, including structural equation modeling, hierarchical linear modeling, and survey weighting, in preparation for her successful completion of a quantitative analysis comprehensive exam. She has led and contributed to projects using quantitative and qualitative methods in both the design and collection phases, including conducting semi-structured telephone interviews and questionnaire development as well as codebook construction and thematic analysis. Dr. Ray most often uses quantitative methods during analyses and is typically the primary analyst on the manuscripts that she contributes to.  

Dr. Ray has contributed to more than 30 published peer-reviewed articles, which demonstrate her wide-ranging expertise. Her passion for the area of violence prevention began with a focus on sexual violence but has developed into a broader expertise in many forms of interpersonal violence including child sexual abuse, child sex trafficking, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, and teen dating violence. Much of her work focuses on adolescents and young adults, which represent a particularly risky developmental stage for violence exposure. She has long been passionate about addressing the disparities in violence victimization experienced by members of the LGBTQ+ community and those experiencing homelessness, along with other groups at disproportionate risk for violence.

Dr. Ray served as a scientist on the Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence team in the Research and Evaluation Branch of the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention for 5 years until the Department of Health and Human Services eliminated this work in 2025. She has also taught a variety of college courses including juvenile delinquency, social inequality, gender and society, and crime, deviance, and social control. Dr. Ray has been invited to speak at national conferences and other public events on sexual violence, child sexual abuse, and human trafficking. 

Beyond work, Dr. Ray loves to spend time baking, puzzling, and soaking up some sun (with lots of SPF!).

Relevant Experience

Health Scientist, CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention (2020-2025)

Associate Professor of Sociology (Adjunct), Concordia College (2022-2025)

Survey Research Intern, NORC at the University of Chicago (Summer 2018)

Education

PhD, Sociology

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

MS, Applied Sociology 

Criminal Justice Concentration

Old Dominion University

BA, Sociology & Psychology

University of North Carolina at Greensboro