Michael Yonas

Michael Yonas is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education and Core Faculty member in the Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Yonas has experience conducting and facilitating community community-based participatory research initiatives, which focus primarily on disparities in health and health care, young people, racism, violence and the role of institutional-level dynamics. While coordinating and managing a number of inner-city after-school programs for seven years, Dr. Yonas developed a particular awareness of and commitment to understanding and addressing the health, economic, and environmental needs of families and children. At The Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, he investigated perceived individual and neighborhood-level dynamics of urban youth violence in Baltimore City, Maryland by engaging local individuals of all ages, within select East and West Baltimore City neighborhoods. Dr. Yonas is the founder and director of the Visual Voices TM Project, a visual arts-based non-profit organization committed to working with and bringing together young people from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences.