An intervention created by a group of University of Kentucky faculty has proven successful in encouraging young women in an area of eastern Kentucky to complete the series of HPV vaccines to guard against cervical cancer. In 2012, cervical cancer affected approximately 12,000 women in the United States and was responsible for another 4,200 deaths.

Betsy Dahms has known since her childhood that masculinity can mean a variety of things. Growing up with eight brothers and one sister, Dahms developed an acute awareness that a person’s masculinity can never be reduced to a single form or expression. It is this aspect of her family upbringing that has most significantly influenced Dahms’ budding scholarly and pedagogical career.

“My father died when I was young, so I didn’t grow up with a father-figure in my life,” said Dahms.“In my house I was able to see how my brothers were treated versus how my sister and I were treated, and I often thought to myself, ‘wow, that’s different.’”