Leila Wood, PhD, MSSW is a researcher, educator, and social worker with over 20 years of experience working with interpersonal violence survivors. Dr. Wood is a Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) McGovern Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where she also serves as the Director of the new Social Work program. In addition, Dr. Wood is the Director of Research and Evaluation at the CDC-funded Texas Violence and Injury Prevention Research Center (VIPR). Dr. Wood’s research focuses on the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, child maltreatment, elder abuse, and human trafficking. She is particularly focused on community-based and healthcare services for survivors and their children. Using a multigenerational lifespan approach, Dr. Wood investigates the impacts of community, clinical, and economic programs to help survivors heal and prevent victimization. Her program of research includes intervention development and testing, program evaluation, longitudinal, and community-based methods. Dr. Wood is a mixed methods researcher with expertise in qualitative approaches, data integration, and survey design. Dr. Wood is the author of over 100 published works about interpersonal violence, with funding support from the National Institute of Justice and the National Institutes of Health. Ultimately, her work is driven by a singular goal: to develop and implement community grounded, evidence-based solutions that reduce the burden of interpersonal violence and promote resilience and well-being in individuals, families, and communities.