


Mexico Border via an R34 lead by Jane Simoni and a tele-medicine approach for African American women with HIV living in the Deep South lead by Mirjam Kempf. I have conducted several funded trials of this approach examining this approach and it has been picked up by others being extended to a Spanish version at the U.S. This was an internet-based pager system.įrom these two trials, co-occurring behavioral health problems were prevalent and related to outcomes, so I began working on cognitive behavioral therapy for adherence and depression (CBT-AD) which integrated my approach to adherence counseling with general approaches to treating depression, psychosocially, in individuals with medical illness. Shortly thereafter, I completed a second RCT of an adherence intervention, which addressed the frequently identified problem of “forgetting” to take one’s medications. I developed and tested the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an adherence to ART treatment intervention, called “Life-Steps” using a cognitive-behavioral which is now used all over the world, including by MSF treatment clinics in S. Adherence to antiretroviral therapy for HIV treatment, developing the Life-Steps approach. Please see below for 5 topical areas of research that I study, followed by a list of selected current funded projects that I lead or co-lead.ġ. I am also the Co-Director of the Behavioral/Social Sciences and Community Outreach Core for the UM Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). Finally, I developed and tested one of the only evidenced-based psychosocial treatments for ADHD in adults, and extended that to adolescents. I have been PI or protocol chair of 18 federally funded studies (via NIMH, NIDA, and NIAID), and, in addition to studies where I am PI, I have regularly served as co-PI, co-investigator, or mentor on studies related to HIV prevention and treatment. I joined the Department of Psychology at the University in of Miami in 2015 after 18 years working in the Harvard Medical School system at Massachusetts General Hospital where I was a Professor and Director of the Behavioral Medicine Service, and led behavioral science studies at Fenway Health. Within HIV prevention, many of my projects investigate social, contextual, and behavioral health issues related to sexual and gender minority populations. For example, I have developed and tested adherence and combined depression/adherence interventions that are being used globally. I am the Director of the UM Center for HIV and Research in Mental Health (NIMH-funded Developmental AIDS Research Center D-ARC) and the Health Promotion and Care research program ( ) where we study health behavior change, with a particular emphasis on mental health and substance use components of HIV prevention and treatment domestically and internationally.
