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HIV Center News Briefs
New Home for HIV Center
In 2006, the HIV Center settled in to new home large
enough for many of our investigators, staff members, fellows,
consultants, and Center leadership. The move brings more
than 65 HIV Center personnel together on the third floor
of the building of the Columbia University Mailman School
of Public Health at 722 West 168 St. This location, the
former site of the New York State Psychiatric Institute,
has long housed the HIV Center's Administrative Core, but
the move represents the first time that all full-time employees
of the HIV Center are under a single roof.
The new space, consisting of nearly 12.5 thousand square
feet, consolidates personnel from five previous sites scattered
throughout the Columbia Health Sciences Campus. The third
floor location holds more than 50 offices on four wings,
along with an administrative suite and a director's suite.
There are also three conference rooms and three interview
rooms, named in memory of major supporters of the HIV Center
who have passed away. Among these are administrators Charles
Armstrong, Steven Papp, and Joseph O'Reilly, as well as
researchers Jacob Cohen and Rafael Tavares.
While the new site is located in the Mailman School
of Public Health Building and is administered by Columbia
University, the HIV Center's principal affiliation remains
with the New York State Psychiatric Institute. The main
phone number for the HIV Center remains 212-543-5969 while
the fax number is still 212-543-6003. To access the new
HIV Center Directory, click here.
AETC Training Program at HIV Center
In a major recent development, the HIV Center is now
home to a multi-site training program, the New York/New
Jersey AIDS Education and Training Center (NY/NJ AETC),
which was transferred to the Center under the leadership
of Francine Cournos. This program has the primary aims
of identifying and responding to HIV clinical care providers'
prevention, diagnosis and clinical management training
needs; increasing the number of clinicians in the NY/NJ
region who are competent and willing to provide HIV/AIDS
clinical treatment; building community capacity for HIV
treatment in minority communities and promote culturally
competent care; and systematically evaluating program activities
and disseminating best practices. Thus, the AETC will sustain
a regionally coordinated education and training program
that promotes collaboration and ensures high quality curricula
and rapid dissemination of information. "We are fortunate
that all of the Central Office staff of the AETC have all
agreed to stay on," noted Cournos. "The Director of the
AETC is Daria Boccher-Lattimore does a wonderful job in
the day-to-day operations of the program along with the
six other staff who work with her."
Postdoctoral Fellows at the HIV
Center
Now in its 18th year, the HIV Center's Behavioral Sciences
Research Fellowship Program in HIV Infection graduated
five fellows in 2006 while welcoming four new ones for
a rigorous three-year program of study. Recognizing the
increasing need for HIV behavioral researchers with expertise
in the science of sexuality and gender, Program Director
Anke A. Ehrhardt and Training Director
Theo Sandfort have
focused the training program on state-of-the-art, intensive
theoretical and methodological training in human sexuality
research with an emphasis on applied problems in HIV prevention.
Fellows also are given the opportunity to earn a Master's
of Science degree in Biostatistics at the Columbia Mailman
School of Public Health. To date, 51 fellows have finished
the program, the majority of whom are pursuing careers
in AIDS research.
Sharlene Beckford is serving as Monitoring and Evaluation
Officer at the Office of AIDS at the National Ministry
of Health in Jamaica. Peter Lin is an assistant professor
at St. Joseph College's Psychology Department and practicing
as a private psychotherapist. Rogerio Pinto is continuing
his work as a psychiatric social worker and researcher
at the Columbia University School of Social Work as an
assistant professor. Michael Stirratt is a program officer
at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda,
Maryland, working at the Center for Mental Health. Wadiya
Udell is an assistant professor in the Community Psychology
Program in the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and
Sciences at the University of Washington at Bothell.
Katherine Elkington completed a Ph.D, in Clinical Psychology
at Northwestern University, working on substance abuse
disorders among juvenile detainees. She will be undertaking
research with Milton Wainberg on sexual risk and mental
illness. Tonya Taylor holds a doctorate in Medical-Linguistic
Anthropology and Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania,
where her research focused on traditional medicine and
HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe. Working with Center investigator
Susan Tross, she will be addressing issues of immigrants'
access to HIV care.
Isidore Udoh completed a Ph.D. in Education
from North Dakota State University, studying migration
patterns, HIV/AIDS trends, and social vulnerability in
the Niger Delta of Nigeria. At the HIV Center, he will
continue working on these issues with
Joanne Mantell.
Pamela
Valera earned a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University
of South Carolina with a dissertation on married African-American
men who have sex with men, a topic that she is continuing
to study with Theo Sandfort. The four incoming fellows
join the three continuing fellows:
Mark Bradley,
Jennifer
Higgins, and
Stephanie Marhefka.
2006 Manuscript Award
In 2006 the HIV Center presented its second HIV Center
Publication Award for Junior Investigators and Fellows.
This yearly award was established in 2005 and recognizes
and encourages productivity and excellence in scientific
publication. The HIV Center Publication Award consists
of a certificate and a cash prize of $300. The recipient
of the award is selected based on the quality of one of
his or her first authored and peer reviewed papers published
or accepted for publication in the course of the prior
year, as well as overall writing productivity. An independent
committee was established and instructed to select the
awardee based on the following criteria: (a) innovation
of the topic/approach; (b) significance of the study to
HIV/AIDS (c) clarity, consistency, and eloquence of the
paper; (d) caliber of journal in which the paper is published;
and (e) number of other peer reviewed papers by awardee.
The 2006 award was presented on June 29, 2006 to former
postdoctoral fellow Michael Stirratt. The Awards Committee,
chaired by Dr. Theresa Exner was impressed by the paper's
substance, with its sophisticated, theory-driven mediational
analysis examining disclosure, adherence, and medication-specific
social support. The discussion section provided a thorough
and nuanced analysis of limitations and implications for
clinical practice and policy, as well as future research
directions. The article is "The role of HIV serostatus
disclosure in antiretroviral medication adherence" (co-authors:
Robert H. Remien, Anna Smith, Olivia Q. Copeland,
Curtis
Dolezal, & Daniel Krieger). Accepted for publication in
AIDS & Behavior at the time of the award, the article was
published in Volume 10, Number 5 (September 2006) of that
journal.
HIV Center Faculty Honors and
Awards, 2005-2006
Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D., Director
2006 Invited Presenter for The Frontiers of Science
Lecture Series, at the American Psychiatric Association:
"The Discourse on Human Sexuality in the Time of AIDS,"
Toronto, Canada
2006 First Annual Champions of Sexual Literacy Award, "In
Recognition of Outstanding Research in Sexuality," National
Sexuality Research Center and Center for Research on Gender
and Sexuality. San Francisco, CA
Elaine Abrams, M.D.
2006-present Chair, Primary Therapy Committee, IMPAACT
(The International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical
Trials)
Alan Berkman, M.D.
2004-2005 Member, Secretary's Advisory Committee on
Human Research Protections, US Department of Health and
Human Services
Theresa Exner, Ph.D.
2006 John Dondero Alumni Award, La Salle University,
Philadelphia, PA
Joyce Hunter, D.S.W.
2006 Special New York City Council Proclamation as
Spokesperson for the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights,
20th anniversary of the passing of the NYC Gay Rights Bill,
NY
Heino Meyer-Bahlburg, Dr. rer.nat
2004-2005 Chair, Subgroup 5, Psychosocial Management
of Patients with Intersexuality and Related Conditions,
International Consensus Conference on Intersex (Chicago,
IL, October 27-30, 2005)
Updated Community-Research Collaboration
Resources Available
The Community Collaboration Core (CCC) of the HIV Center
has updated its comprehensive listing of journal articles,
book chapters, and web links for community-research collaboration.
This tool can be used by academic researchers, community-based
organization representatives and government representatives
in planning collaborative HIV/AIDS-related research projects.
To access the complete document, please visit:
http://www.hivcenternyc.org/community/communityresources.pdf
Journal articles and book chapters have been placed
in categories of major topics relating to collaboration,
including the following:
- Key principles of community-based and collaborative
research
- Overviews (HIV/AIDS specific)
- From research to community practice
- Participatory action research and empowerment
- Capacity building in community-based organizations
- Methods
- Building and sustaining relationships and interventions
- Case studies in community-based research and lessons
learned
- Evaluation
- Prevention in community-based research
- Partnerships--building, assessing
- Translation, transferability, replicability
- Funding considerations
- Community-based research initiatives, organizations,
and websites
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