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.