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Delesha Miller Carpenter

Associate Professor Adjunct Assistant Professor

Delesha Miller Carpenter, Ph.D., M.S.P.H.

Executive Vice Chair, Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy

Professor

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Health Behavior


delesha_miller_carpenter

PHONE
(828) 250-3916
EMAIL
dmcarpenter@unc.edu
ADDRESS
2214 Kerr Hall, , CB# 7573, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, , One University Heights, , CB# 2125, Asheville, NC, 28804
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Delesha Carpenter, PhD, MSPH, is a professor and Executive Vice Chair in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. Her research focuses on improving patient-provider communication about sensitive issues, like suicide and vaccine hesitancy. Recently, she documented barriers to community pharmacists delivering harm reduction services, including buprenorphine dispensing, naloxone counseling, and fentanyl test strip sales. She has developed four online training programs to help pharmacists overcome these barriers. She is especially interested in improving access to healthcare services in rural areas and directs a practice-based research network for rural community pharmacists.

She also runs an active research program in inhaler technique education. She has developed an adolescent asthma self-management app and a tailored video software program to improve children’s asthma inhaler technique.

She teaches the Social & Behavior Aspects of Pharmaceutical Use course and has enjoyed mentoring PhD students, PharmD students, and hosting students from other universities for research rotations.

Carpenter has published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles on the topics of harm reduction, pediatric asthma, patient-provider communication, the effects of conflicting medication information on medication adherence, and evaluating the impact of technology on patient outcomes. She has received funding to support her research from a diverse body of funders, including the American Lung Association, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Arthritis Foundation, NIH, NSF, the Veteran’s Administration, and startup companies.

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

(PI: Carpenter)

Creating a novel place-based measure to explain racial disparities in naloxone access to reduce opioid overdose deaths

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

(mPI: Carpenter/Curran)

Addressing COVID 19 vaccine hesitancy in rural community pharmacies reducing disparities through an implementation science approach 

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

(mPI: Carpenter/Lavigne)

Developing and evaluating a scalable suicide prevention gatekeeper training program for community pharmacy staff     

Eshelman Innovation

(PI: Carpenter)
Creating the first multi-state rural community pharmacy research network: RURAL-CP

National Institute on Drug Abuse

(PI: Carpenter)
Addressing the opioid epidemic through community pharmacy engagement: a multi-state study

 National Science Foundation(mPI: Hernandez/Carpenter)

SCH: INT: Collaborative Research: A Data-Driven Approach to Enhancing Wearable Device Performance – An Early Asthma Exacerbation Detection Study; Characterizing and Enhancing Signal Quality in Wearables for Early Asthma Exacerbation Detection

exacerbations in young adults. The data produced by this award will be used as part of projects for undergraduate and graduate students. Demonstrations and video materials will be produced as part of the outreach efforts for K-12 and underrepresented communities.

RTI International

(PIs: Carpenter/Ostrach)

Ensuring Buprenorphine Access in Rural Community Pharmacies to Prevent Overdose                          

  1. Carpenter D.M., Zule W.A., Hennessy C.M., Evon D.M., Hurt C.B., Ostrach B. (2022) Factors associated with perceived ease of access to syringes in Appalachian North Carolina.  Journal of Rural Health, 39(1): 212-222.
  2. Carpenter D.M., Lambert K., Harless J.C., Wilson C.G., Davis S.A., Zule W.A., Ostrach B. (2022) North Carolina community pharmacists’ buprenorphine dispensing practices and attitudes. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 62(5): 1606-1614
  3. Carpenter, D.M., Roberts, C. A., Lavigne, J. E., & Cross, W. F. (2021). Gatekeeper training needs of community pharmacy staff. Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior, 51(2), 220-228.
  4. Carpenter D.M., Lavigne J.E., Colmenares E.W., Falbo K., Mosley S.L. (2020) Community pharmacy staff interactions with patients who have risk factors or warning signs of suicide. Research in Social & Administrative Pharmacy: RSAP, 16(3): 349-359.
  5. Carpenter D.M., Dhamanaskar A.K., Gallegos K.L., Shepherd G., Mosley S.L., Roberts C.A. (2019). Factors associated with how often community pharmacists offer and dispense naloxone. Research in Social & Administrative Pharmacy: RSAP, 15(12): 1415-1418.
  6. Carpenter D.M., Jurdi R., Roberts C.A., Hernandez M., Horne R., Chan A. (2018) A review of portable electronic spirometers: Implications for asthma self-management. Current Asthma and Allergy Reports, 18(10):53.
  7. Carpenter D.M., Estrada R.D., Roberts C.A., Elio A., Prendergast M., Durbin K., Jones G.C., North S. (2017) Urban-rural differences in school nurses’ asthma training needs and access to asthma resources. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 6: 157-162
  8. Carpenter D.M., Gonzalez D., Retsch-Bogart G., Sleath B.L., Wilfond B. (2017) Methodological and ethical issues in pediatric medication safety research. Pediatrics, 140(3) e20170195; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2017-0195.
  9. Carpenter D.M., Geryk L.L., Sage A.J., Arrindell C.C., Sleath B.L. (2016) Exploring the theoretical pathways through which asthma app features can promote adolescent self-management. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 6(4): 509-518.
  10. Carpenter D.M., Geryk L.L., Chen A.T., Nagler R.H., Dieckmann N.F., Han P.K.J. (2016) Conflicting health information: A critical research need. Health Expectations, 19(6): 1173-1182.

Dr. Carpenter directs RURAL-CP, a rural community pharmacy practice-based research network. She also is leading projects in pharmacy-based suicide prevention and opioid overdose prevention. She is developing innovative methods to improve inhaler technique and child-provider communication about health issues.


  • Clinical (certified respiratory therapist)
  • Public health (Ph.D. and M.S.P.H.) training


Delesha Carpenter News