Making Secondary Data Work for You: Innovative Methods for Leveraging National Violent Death Data

A Conversation with Millan AbiNader, PhD, MSW, Laurie Graham, PhD, MSW, and Julie Kafka, PhD, MPH

12:00p.m. – 1:00p.m. ET February 10, 2026 Virtual Event

Secondary data offers powerful opportunities for research—but it also comes with constraints. How can scholars push beyond these limitations? Join experts Millan AbiNader, PhD, MSW, Laurie Graham, PhD, MSW, and Julie Kafka, PhD, MPH for a dynamic discussion on innovative methods for analyzing intimate partner violence-related fatalities using the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). They’ll share how they’ve used triangulation, qualitative content analysis, and natural language processing to uncover insights that traditional methods often miss—and how these strategies can be adapted to other understudied issues and populations.

Co-sponsored by Penn LDI, the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Penn Injury Science Center.

Supported by the Charles C. Leighton, MD Memorial Fund.


Speakers

Millan AbiNader

Millan AbiNader, PhD, MSW

Assistant Professor, Social Work & Social Policy, School of Social Policy & Practice

Laurie Graham

Laurie M. Graham, PhD, MSW

Associate Professor, University of Maryland School of Social Work

Julie Kafka, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine