Dr. W. Rodney Hammond

W. Rodney Hammond, PhD, is the retired director of the Division of Violence Prevention within the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently, he is an adjunct professor of counseling and human development in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. He began his career at CDC in 1996 following 23 years in academia, where he became nationally recognized for his research and programs focused on preventing youth violence. As the first permanent director of the Division of Violence Prevention, he led the division through unprecedented growth. Throughout his career, he has been dedicated to promoting a public health approach to preventing violence, both nationally and internationally. His efforts brought recognition to the CDC as a world leader in violence prevention and have engaged numerous partners in violence prevention activities, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the World Health Organization. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and a distinguished fellow emeritus of the National Academies of Practice. In 2010, he received the Nicholas Hobbs Award from the Society for Child and Family Practice of the American Psychological Association for lifetime achievements in child advocacy and policy. Also in 2010, the American Psychological Association honored him with their Meritorious Research Service Commendation for his leadership role at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in applying psychological science to the problem of youth violence. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his PhD in psychology at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He completed postdoctoral study at Harvard University.