First Year Visiting Professors Russell A. Brewer, DrPH, MPH Since August 2011, Dr. Brewer has served as the Director of the HIV/STI Program at the Louisiana Public Health Institute in New Orleans, LA. From 2010-2012, he was an HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) Scholar conducting research to explore the relationship between incarceration and HIV among Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) enrolled in the HPTN 061 study. His research and programmatic efforts are focused on the needs of BMSM, persons living with HIV infection, and other populations most impacted by HIV/AIDS in the United States. His CAPS pilot study will explore the neighborhood-level factors that are associated with high-risk sexual behaviors and syndemic conditions among BMSM in New Orleans. In 2005, Dr. Brewer received his Doctorate degree in Public Health from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, OK. David Cordova, PhD Dr. Cordova is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Dr. Cordova was awarded his PhD in Human Development and Family Studies, with a specialization in Couple and Family Therapy, from Michigan State University in 2010. His overarching program of research focuses on HIV health disparities in adolescents. This is addressed through three areas: (1) Developing a fuller understanding of the etiological factors influencing HIV/STI risk behaviors, (2) developing preventive interventions grounded in basic science, and (3) examining the effects of interventions in preventing and reducing HIV/STI risk behaviors. His current research focuses on m(obile)-health preventive interventions in primary care. His CAPS pilot study will examine the efficacy of an m-health version of Storytelling for Empowerment in preventing and reducing HIV/STI risk behaviors among adolescents in primary care. Matt G. Mutchler, PhD Dr. Mutchler is a Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Urban Community Research Center at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH); he is also a Community-Based Researcher at AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA). Dr. Mutchler earned a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1999. His primary research interests include sociology of health and illness/medical sociology, HIV/AIDS and health disparities, community studies, sexualities, gender, social psychology, and methods. Dr. Mutchler’s area of expertise is investigating the social and cultural contexts of HIV prevention and treatment issues among young gay and bisexual men. His current work examines how young Black gay men discuss sexual health topics and explores how “sexual communication scripts” may be related to health behaviors such as condom use and PrEP uptake. Dr. Mutchler also collaborates on several community studies analyzing HIV treatment adherence among Blacks. His CAPS pilot study will be guided by sexual script theory to explore the critical factors (barriers and facilitators) that young Black gay men think are important to address in order to increase PrEP uptake among their peers. Robin Stevens, PhD, MPH Dr. Stevens is an Assistant Professor in Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden and received her AB from Harvard College, MPH from University of Michigan School of Public Health, and PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Stevens is a health communication scholar focused on achieving health equity in African American and Latino communities. Her area of expertise is examining the role of new and traditional media on adolescent risk behavior, including sexual health, alcohol use and violence. Her program of research is typified by two lines of inquiry; the quantification of new and traditional media effects on adolescent sexual health behavior and the development of media-informed HIV prevention interventions. Her CAPS pilot study is an examination of HIV and sexual risk related messages on social media and the influence of the social media environment on adolescent sexual risk behavior. Third Year Visiting Professors Marlon M. Bailey, PhD, MFA Dr. Bailey is an Associate Professor of Gender Studies and American Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. He was awarded his PhD in African American Studies from the University of California-Berkeley in 2005. Dr. Bailey also holds an MFA in Theatre Performance from West Virginia University. His areas of expertise are race, gender, and sexuality studies (particularly Black LGBT communities), transnational and diaspora gender and sexuality studies, queer and feminist theories, performance and critical ethnography and HIV/AIDS. His current research focuses on "raw sex" practices among Black gay men in this moment of high HIV prevalence in Black gay/MSM communities. His pilot study examined Black gay men's raw sex practices with the aim to develop risk reductive, efficacious and culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention strategies that do not require Black gay men to undermine or refract sexual pleasure for safe sex. Naomi M. Hall-Byers, PhD, MPH Dr. Hall-Byers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Winston-Salem State University. Dr. Hall-Byers was awarded her PhD in the field of Applied Social Psychology from Claremont Graduate University in 2007. Her area of expertise is in the identification of important psychosocial and sociocultural factors that contribute to sexual decisionmaking, and subsequent HIV-related risky sexual behavior of African Americans. Her current research explores a culturally grounded, multidimensional model of sexual decision-making and behavior among African American college students at an HBCU. Her CAPS pilot study utilized three theories (social cognitive theory, ecological systems theory, and activation theory of information exposure) to assess the types of HIV prevention messages that are most/least stimulating to African American college students. Additionally, she is interested in understanding how technology can help transform and disseminate culturally appropriate HIV prevention interventions to African American college students attending HBCUs.
© Copyright 2024