Biography
Noël Bridget Busch-Armendariz, PhD LMSW, MPA is the University Presidential Professor, Steve Hicks School of Social Work and the Director of the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (IDVSA) at The University of Texas at Austin. Busch-Armendariz is a nationally recognized expert in sexual assault, human trafficking, and domestic violence. Busch-Armendariz served as the co-principal investigator for interprofessional collaboration of a four year project on untested sexual assault kits (SAKs) that was one of two in first-funded research-to-action projects in the United States by the U. S. Department of Justice, Institute of Justice Programs. The major aim was to bring together an interdisciplinary group of people an evaluate the circumstances that led to nearly 6,800 sexual assault kits being unrequested in Houston, Texasat the police department after being collected by a SANE nurse at one of the area hospitals. This demonstration project answered this critical question and together (law enforcement, prosecutors, advocates, crime lab personnel, SANEs, and researchers) cleared the backlog and began to make amends to sexual assault survivors by building new protocols and justice procedures.