Asari Offiong, PhD, MPH, is a senior research scientist within the sexual and reproductive health research area. As an adolescent health researcher, she takes an assets-based, youth-centered approach to addressing issues pertinent to young people—viewing youth as “at-promise” not “at-risk.” Dr. Offiong’s research portfolio focuses on Black youth, substance use prevention, and using a reproductive justice lens to understand the social context of how U.S. adolescents conceptualize their sexual health intentions, behaviors, and decision-making. This work has led her to focus on expecting and parenting adolescents and how to best support their holistic well-being.  

Dr. Offiong has a decade of experience in leading youth development programs and conducting mixed methods, community-based research in various metropolitan areas across the United States with community-based organizations, libraries, churches, school districts, and government agencies. Asari’s practice-based work began at the Children’s Aid Society where she managed a $1 million state substance use prevention grant and oversaw youth programming for over 2,000 youth in New York City annually. Based on her connections to communities, she has served as a consultant in various capacities, providing topical expertise on youth-centered approaches, equity, qualitative methods, evidence-based programming, and university-community partnerships.  

At Child Trends, Asari leads several technical assistance and evaluation projects funded by Administration for Children and Families (ACF), including Family Youth and Service Bureau (FYSB), Office of Planning Research and Evaluation (OPRE), and Office of Population Affairs (OPA). She provides technical assistance to federal grantees implementing adolescent pregnancy prevention programs, develops practice-based tools for youth-supporting professionals under the Activate Center, leads a $5 million rigorous impact evaluation of a parent-teen communication program in partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine, and co-leads a project focused on advancing equity for Black youth receiving sexual health programming. Her publications in leading journals, awards, and affiliations with professional organizations are evidence of her expertise and commitment to supporting equity for youth, particularly Black youth.

Select non-Child Trends Work:

https://teenpregnancy.acf.hhs.gov/resources/health-equity  

Offiong, A., Powell, T. W., Gemmill, A., & Marcell, A. V. (2021). “I can try and plan, but still get pregnant”: The complexity of pregnancy intentions and reproductive health decision-making for adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 90, 1-10. 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140197121000683  

Offiong, A., Lewis, Q., & Powell, T. W. (2020). Making success tangible: Reengaging female opportunity youth in Baltimore, MD. Perspectives in Public Health, 140(4), 187-189. 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1757913920921195