Venita Embry is a Research Public Health Analyst at RTI whose work specializes in violence and criminal justice research within the Center for Courts and Corrections. Ms. Embry’s research expertise spans public health and criminal justice areas to include violence prevention and intervention strategies, child maltreatment, behavioral health services, pretrial decision-making, collateral consequences of justice involvement, and court system and programs. She employs both quantitative and qualitative methods in her research and is a highly skilled qualitative interviewer. She is currently the RTI project director for a training and technical assistance project working with various jurisdictions to increase Sixth Amendment protections. In addition, Ms. Embry is a process evaluator to a community-developed reentry and restorative program, a technical assistance provider to prosecutors investigating and prosecuting violent crimes, and a qualitative interviewer and data analyst for an evaluation of a multi-school intervention to reduce discipline disparities among Black male students.
Ms. Embry has disseminated her findings in a variety of settings through numerous technical reports, peer-reviewed articles, and national conferences. As a doctoral student, Ms. Embry is an Injury and Violence Prevention Fellow at the University of North Carolina’s Injury Prevention Research Center (2018-2021). She also manages large datasets, conducts structural equation modeling, and interviews with vulnerable populations and criminal justice stakeholders. In addition, she applies program evaluation standards, develops evaluation plans and logic models, and offers strategic leadership on practical and feasible recommendations.
Since joining RTI in 2012, Ms. Embry has worked on several projects for the National Institute of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as well as with a variety of local government agencies.
