An important element of our mission at Prevention Innovations Research Center is to mentor the next generation of researchers and practitioners; our intern program is how we achieve this goal.
Mentoring the Next Generation
The Schechter Lab
Interns work within the framework of the Susan Schechter Domestic and Sexual Violence Social Justice Laboratory (the Schechter Lab), named in honor of the visionary in violence prevention and developer of “The Greenbook”, Susan Schechter.
About Susan Schechter and the Lab
The Susan Schechter Domestic and Sexual Violence Social Justice Laboratory (Schechter Lab) is a project of Prevention Innovations Research Center (PIRC), named in honor of Susan Schechter, a visionary in violence prevention. Her groundbreaking work: Effective Interventions in Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment Cases: Guidelines for Policy and Practice – also commonly known as “the Greenbook” – changed the responses of courts and child welfare agencies to victims of domestic violence. Established in Fall 2015, The Schechter Lab was dedicated in December 2015 by Dr. Sharon B. Murphy. We are grateful to Susan’s husband, Dr. Allen Steinberg and her son, Zachary Schechter-Steinberg for giving permission to create the Schechter Lab in Susan’s honor.
This interdisciplinary research lab, where students earn credit for their role as research assistants, engages students, faculty, researchers, and practitioners in research that focus on intervention and prevention strategies for eliminating domestic and sexual violence.
Prevention Innovations Research Center (PIRC) is seeking highly motivated undergraduate and graduate students to help with multiple research and practice projects (with the potential to extend into a full year internship, pending review). Applicants must demonstrate a strong academic record, should be interested in the field of sexual and relationship violence prevention and have a commitment to social justice. Applicants will be assigned to work on a current PIRC research and practice project, within one of the three project areas, after being assessed through the application process. Applicants will have the opportunity to rate their desired area of interest during the application process. The three Project Areas are:
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Research (e.g., data collection in SPSS and survey creation in Qualtrics, entering data, literature reviews)
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Curriculum Development (e.g., implementation and creation of prevention learning tools and strategies)
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Smartphone Apps (e.g., promoting, creating marketing materials, and providing feedback on the app)
Review the internship position description and apply to be an intern:
Apply for 2024-2025 Internships
The Sharon B. Murphy Sponsored Research Internship
Established for students with an expressed interest and passion for working in the field of sexual and relationship violence and stalking prevention and response, the Sharon B. Murphy internship provides a paid position for a full-time UNH junior, senior, or graduate student with a minimum GPA of 3.0, excellent writing skills, and a demonstrated interest in the field.
Fall 2023 Sharon B. Murphy Internship Recipient
The Fall 2023 recipient of the Sharon B. Murphy Sponsored Research Internship was Naomi Schneider, a Nursing undergraduate.
Meet our Spring 2021 Interns
Ally Kosmala
PIRC Research Intern
Ally is a senior at UNH, majoring in Psychology and Justice Studies, and minoring in Women and Gender Studies. She has experience working on a crisis center call line and has been trained in peer advocacy with SHARPP—continuing to explore more options in this field. Ally is interested in restorative justice and alternative ways to rehabilitate offenders. Her other interests include drug rehabilitation and working with offenders with mental illnesses. For her intern project, she is working on a research project with the University of New Mexico where we are looking to form a bystander program for sexual violence in the engineering field
Charlotte Stansbury
PIRC Communications Intern
Charlotte majors in Communication and minors in Business Administration at UNH. She will be graduating in 2022 and is excited for her next stage in life. For her PIRC internship, Charlotte analyzes our four social media channels and creates a monthly media reports that track our results so we can better strategize. In her free time, she enjoys baking or playing the guitar.
Emily Desormier
PIRC Communications Intern
Emily is a senior at UNH with a double major in English Literature and Communication. This spring, she is working on a hashtag analysis project for PIRC. The goal of her project is to gain a better understanding of how to best utilize hashtags across social media platforms and optimize the strategy for PIRC and other organizations like us. After college, I she hopes to work as a book editor. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing with her dog, and doing yoga.
Hannah Rubin
PIRC uSafeUS Projects Intern
Hannah majors in Communication and Women’s & Gender Studies, and minors in Sociology and Social Justice Leadership at UNH. She is a senior working on our uSafeUS research team to develop ways to better engage hall staff and residents with the app. Although she never saw herself working in finance, she will be moving west to work for Fidelity Investments in their Salt Lake City office this summer.
Fun fact: her right pupil is always bigger than her left!
Kat Legier
PIRC uSafeUS Projects Intern
Kat Legier is a senior at UNH majoring in sociology, women’s studies, and minoring in fine arts. With PIRC, she will be working on developing strategies to promote uSafeUS to states that have passed the EveryVoice Legislation. After completing her undergraduate education, she hopes to pursue a Masters in Public Health with a focus on health disparities. Her career goal is to help keep communities healthy using methods outside of the conventional clinical categories of health, such as finding innovative ways to end sexual violence.
Maeve Pitman
PIRC Research Intern
Maeve is a Psychology and Justice Studies major with a minor in Forensics and Sociology, graduating this spring. Throughout her time at UNH she has gained a lot of knowledge about the intersection between psychology and sociology with criminal behavior. She has really enjoyed interning at Prevention Innovations, gaining experience working with an organization related to the topics that she has studied while completing her degree. I am working as a research intern assisting with the Prevention Innovations research projects.
Nick Brown
PIRC COVID Projects Intern
Nick graduated from UNH in 2020 with a BS in Economics and a minor in Psychology. He is currently Enrolled in UNH’s Accelerated MBA program with a focus in finance. Nick is looking to pursue a career in finance as an analyst after graduating. In his spare time, he is an athlete for the UNH cross country and track and field teams.
