Sarah DeGue, PhD

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Sarah DeGue

Senior Scientist, Research and Evaluation Branch, Division of Violence Prevention

 

Areas of Expertise

  • Sexual violence prevention
  • Teen dating violence prevention
  • Dating Matters®

Sarah DeGue, PhD, is a senior scientist in the Research and Evaluation Branch of the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) at CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and lead for CDC’s Dating Matters® teen dating violence prevention initiative. Her work focuses primarily on the etiology and prevention of sexual violence. Key efforts have included systematic reviews of primary prevention strategies for sexual and dating violence perpetration, a review of alcohol policy approaches to sexual violence prevention, a systematic review of sexual violence risk and protective factors, an economic estimate of the societal costs of sexual violence, and CDC’s first technical package to prevent sexual violence. As lead for the Dating Matters initiative, Dr. DeGue’s work has focused on national dissemination of the first comprehensive teen dating violence prevention model to ensure widespread adoption of this evidence-based strategy in communities across the US. Other recent work has addressed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on violence, deaths due to the use of lethal force by law enforcement, and the role of public health in preventing targeted and extremist violence.

Dr. DeGue received her BA degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Michigan, and a PhD degree in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, specializing in adult forensic evaluation. Dr. DeGue started at CDC as a behavioral scientist in DVP in 2008. During her career at CDC, she has served as a scientific advisor and collaborator on multiple rigorous outcome studies examining the effectiveness of approaches to prevent sexual violence, teen dating violence, and youth violence. She has also served as an advisor on the topic of evidence-based sexual violence prevention to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, the Department of Education, the Department of Defense, the US Army, the US Air Force, CDC’s Rape Prevention and Education program, several colleges, universities, and state and local health departments.

Dr. DeGue has published dozens of peer-reviewed manuscripts, government publications, book chapters, and articles, and frequently serves as an invited speaker at national meetings and conferences. Her presentations address violence as a public health problem, evidence-based strategies to prevent sexual and teen dating violence, campus sexual assault, Dating Matters, and the importance of creating and applying the best available research evidence for prevention.