Cheryl KovarView profile
Associate Professor
Dr. Cheryl Kovar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nursing Science at East Carolina University College of Nursing, where she transferred in summer 2023. Previously, she was in the Advanced Nursing Practice & Education Department (2015-2023). She joined ECU in February 2015 as the Concentration Director for the MSN Leadership Concentration and in December 2015 added the role of Concentration Director for the Post Masters DNP Leadership program. She stepped down from these directorship roles on July 1, 2018 to return to her academic teaching position. Prior to ECU, she served as the state nurse consultant for the Title X Family Planning program with the North Carolina Division of Public Health from 2007 to 2015. Dr. Kovar holds a B.S.N. in Nursing from the University of Toledo, an MSN in Maternal-Child Clinical Nurse Specialist from the Medical College of Ohio, and a Ph.D. in Nursing from The Ohio State University. In August 2023, she obtained her Certification in Public Health (CPH), making her the only faculty member in the ECU College of Nursing with this certification. Her research focuses on reproductive and sexual health issues, particularly adolescent high-risk behaviors and reproductive coercion. As of 2024, she is conducting research on reproductive coercion among pregnant and/or parenting adolescent females in three North Carolina counties, which will inform the development of a gamification intervention in 2025. Her publication record spans from 2006 to 2025, with recent work focusing on HPV vaccine promotion during the pandemic, transgender youth healthcare, STD services, and reproductive coercion. Her research has been funded by significant grants including a $800,000 CDC-funded BILCORE-PRO project (2015-2017) and current studies supported by Sigma Global Nursing Excellence and ECU internal funding. Notable awards include: Fellow Cohort of the American Academy of Nursing (2025) DAISY Honoree award from the DAISY Foundation (2024) Multiple Health Sciences Author Recognition Awards from ECU 100 Distinguished Public Health Nurses in North Carolina Award (2021) State of North Carolina 15 year Service Award (2022) Dr. Kovar is an active contributor to her field, serving as the SE Regional Forum Organizer for the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (2024-2025), frequently reviewing manuscripts for prominent nursing journals, and serving on review panels for federal grant programs. Her expertise in reproductive health, adolescent health, and public health nursing has made her a national speaker on these topics, with presentations at major conferences including APHA Annual Meetings and NCPHA conferences.

