Roles
Professor
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Biography
I am a Clinical Psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UM), co-Director of the Center for HIV Research on Mental Health (CHARM), co-Director of the HIV & Women Program of the UM Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), and PI/MPI of the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS). I am and have been PI and Co-PI on national and international grants conducting cohort-based research on HIV/AIDS for over two decades. I have extensive experience in community-based recruitment and have worked with underrepresented minority men and women with and at risk for HIV domestically and internationally since 1985. I have been PI and collaborator on large biobehavioral cohort studies in Miami FL on HIV and COVID, and HIV, mental health, substance use, and sex/gender-based disparities (e.g., PI Jones/Kumar, R01DA034589; PI: Jones; K18DA031463; R01MH110242-S1). I have conducted research using qualitative/mixed methods (R01HD078187-S, R01MH110242 – S1), implementation science and dissemination methodologies (R01HD078187, PI Weiss, R01MH095539) and community-based translational strategies (PI Weiss, R01MH55463, PI Weiss R18PS000829). I have collaborated with senior and early stage and new investigators on developing HIV-related projects addressing health disparities, behavioral research, comorbidities, and basic science in Miami, Argentina, Zambia, and India. I have advanced training in Motivational Interviewing and have led several MI studies (community health workers (CHWs), R01HD078187; physicians, R34 MH097609; R01MH110242, peers, R01DA034589) and have an excellent foundation in MI training and implementation. The SMARTEST Women’s Project, a multi-center comprehensive intervention led by our team, applied the translational strategies developed by the Miami/Africa NOW/Partner Project studies and using implementation science strategies, was disseminated in Miami, NY and NJ. The success of our sexual risk reduction intervention, the Partner Project, was recognized by the Zambian branch of the US CDC, and the program has been implemented in community health centers (CHCs) nationwide. The program was implemented in the Zambian Provinces with highest rates of HIV, reaching over 150 clinics, hundreds of staff members, and over 40,000 clients undergoing HIV testing, and has been adapted to include voluntary male medical circumcision (VMMC) as a prevention strategy. The VMMC implementation science and dissemination program was disseminated across Zambia to over 45,000 Zambians, and we currently are completing an early infant male circumcision pilot promotion program. -
Education & Training
Education
Post Graduate Training
Licensures and Certifications
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Honors & Awards
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Teaching Interests
I have offered training in Motivational Interviewing, Research, and International Health.
courses taught in full in the last 20 years include:
Introduction to Psychology
Psychology of the Offender
Social and Multicultural Foundations of Psychology
Health Psychology
Case Conceptualization
Advanced Psychopathology
Personality Psychology
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Research Interests
Depression and substance use. I have worked extensively with under-represented minority populations, developing behavioral interventions and addressing depression and substance use in the US and internationally, examining the impact of trauma, depression and substance use on intervention outcomes. My work has addressed issues related to couples and the experiences of women during the perinatal period, examining the influence of trauma, depression and intimate partner violence on health outcomes. Our team has most recently examined the intersection of COVID, vaccine, and HIV, and of depression, substance use, cardiovascular disease, and HIV. International Positive Prevention. Our research in Argentina, sub-Saharan Africa and India addresses “positive prevention,” i.e., preventing transmission and optimizing adherence and health among HIV-infected men and women. Our teams in Argentina successfully intervened with providers to re-engage challenging patients lost to care. Our teams in Zambia, India and South Africa conducted pilot studies and clinical trials of group interventions with HIV-infected and high-risk women, followed by interventions with sero-positive and sero-discordant couples to reduce HIV transmission, and developed a comprehensive intervetion. Our teams in India identified cognitive deficits associated among HIV infected patients, and made recommendations for revisions to normative data and attention to depression in this population. Comprehensive HIV intervention in South Africa. Our comprehensive intervention, which addresses ART adherence, transmission and optimal health, was adapted for South Africa for HIV-affected couples and individuals for HIV-affected couples attending antenatal clinics, in conjunction with the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) program. Couples participating in the intervention were more likely to utilize problem-solving communication than in violent confrontations, and mothers with higher self-efficacy were more likely to deliver healthy babies. Today, the program is currently used among rural, HIV-infected pregnant South Africa women, building on the potential contribution by men to preventing HIV transmission to infants. This was the first study to evaluate the relative impact of involving men in a PMTCT program, and is currently being disseminated in rural SA using implementation science methodologies. Results highlight the high rates of depression and suicidality among pregnant women in rural communities, the importance of intervention targeting depression and its potential influence on infant cognitive deficits. Reducing HIV transmission between sero-discordant and concordant positive couples. We designed a demonstration project to reduce HIV transmission among Zambian sero-discordant and concordant positive couples (The Partner Project). We illustrated the relative importance of acceptability, partners and skill training in reducing sexual risk behavior among established couples in Zambia. We translated the Partner Project to urban Zambian community health centers and illustrated that when conducted in the community, the Partner intervention achieved even greater reductions in risk behavior. Results were used to explore sexual risk among adolescent girls and young women in rural and urban Zambia and to characterize vaginal sexual practices in Zambia and the USA associated with increased HIV transmission. -
Publications
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Professional Activities
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