Cheryl Kovar is an Associate Professor, East Carolina University College of Nursing. Dr. Kovar’s research focuses on sexual/reproductive health of adolescents, specifically high-risk behavior such as early sexual initiation and teen pregnancy. She has led a CDC HIV Prevention Fund study resulting in an 8.3% increase in agencies billing private insurance and generating over $1 million in additional revenue. This enhances services for uninsured and underserved populations. Her most current research focuses on addressing teen pregnancy from an upstream approach around the concept of reproductive coercion (RC). Findings from this study with pregnant and/or parenting adolescent females who are 14-19 years of ago indicate a prevalence of RC far exceeding that found in other studies with 14-19-year-old females. To her knowledge, this is the first study to examine this concept in this vulnerable population. This work will lead to the development of an intervention that she will incorporate into existing national curricula. She is the first nurse to be a full scientific member for the University Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board’s Social/Behavioral committee, and an alternate scientific member for the Biomedical Committee at her University. Dr. Kovar received her BSN from the University of Toledo, her MSN from the Medical College of Ohio, and PhD from The Ohio State University.