Education
PhD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2009
MPH, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2004
BA, Swarthmore College, 2000
Overview
I am an Associate Professor and Director of the Social and Behavioral Interventions program in the Department of International Health. As a social and behavioral scientist trained in both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, I apply these methods to the development and evaluation of innovative HIV prevention interventions and strategies to improve the health and well-being of people living in resource-limited settings.
I am particularly interested in (1) understanding the complexities of HIV risk and the development of tailored services and combination HIV prevention and care strategies for key populations, such as sex workers and men who have sex with men (MSM), and highly affected populations where unique economic and social patterns create heightened HIV risk, such as fishing communities along East Africa’s great lakes; (2) interventions with structural components that attempt to change the underlying drivers of HIV risk, such as conditional or unconditional cash transfers for young women or community empowerment interventions for sex workers; (3) positive health, dignity and prevention (PHDP) approaches that work with people living with HIV to improve health and reduce onward transmission risk; and (4) social and behavioral aspects of new biomedical HIV prevention strategies, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for sex workers.
I current lead an R01 examining social and structural factors shaping HIV risk and service use in high-prevalence "hotspot" fishing communities along Lake Victoria in Uganda in collaboration with the Rakai Health Sciences Program (www.rhsp.org/) (R01MH105313, PI: Kennedy). This study uses both qualitative and survey research methods to better understand the complex and dynamic issues in these unique settings.
I am also committed to seeing research translate into policy, particularly through my extensive involvement in systematic reviews and World Health Organization normative guidelines. I have contributed to over a dozen WHO guidelines, primarily in the fields of HIV and sexual and reproductive health.
Honors and Awards
Excellence in Advising Award. Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, 2011.
SOURCE faculty community service award. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 2010.