Courtney Waters is an Assistant Research Social Scientist with UA’s Southwest Institute for Research on Women SIROW) Courtney is a Certified Health Education Specialist with Masters degrees in Public Health and Mexican American Studies from UA and a bachelor’s in Biobehavioral Health from Penn State University. Courtney’s research and teaching interests lie primarily in the fields of human sexuality and sexual and relationshiviolence prevention. Courtney has worked in the field of human sexuality for the past eight years; first as a peer HIV counselor, then as a graduate teaching assistant and instructor for undergraduate HIV/AIDS courses, and later as a community Health Educator for SIROW’s SteForward project. Courtney’s research interests have also centered on human sexuality; first as an undergraduate research assistant for a project examining sexual behaviors of Mexican American adolescent girls, then as a graduate research assistant on projects related to HPV and cervical cancer prevention, then through her graduate thesis focusing on sexual communication among Mexican American late adolescents, and finally as a SIROW researcher. Courtney’s work in the area of sexual and relationshiviolence began as a graduate intern with the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault. She has since become a certified facilitator of the Stewards of Children® training for prevention of child sexual abuse. Through her position with SIROW, Courtney has had the opportunity to combine her passion for both teaching and research. Courtney was the Evaluation Coordinator of the ANCHOR Project 2014-2017) a program supporting homeless and unstably housed LGBTQ+ youth and young adults, and is currently the Program Coordinator for Spectrum 2017-2022) an HIV prevention program for LGBTQ+ youth ages 13-24. In addition to her role with SIROW, Courtney has taught undergraduate courses for UA South’s Department of Psychology as an adjunct instructor. These courses included Child Abuse and Neglect Fall 2014, Spring 2018) Human Sexuality Fall 2015) and Health Psychology Spring 2018)