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On February 1, the HIV Center commenced its next phase
through a five-year renewal of the Center with the theme
of "Meeting the Challenges of Global AIDS at the Intersection
of Gender, Sexuality, and Mental Health." The $10 million
renewal is funded by The National Institute of Mental Health
(NIMH) to provide critical infrastructure for the HIV Center
through an Administrative Core and five Research Cores.
The period ahead will be shaped by many of the same priorities,
people, and projects that have long been associated with
the HIV Center, but a number of significant changes and
innovations are specifically discussed below. (For fuller
information about the Cores and a complete list of Core
personnel, please click on the hypertext links below.)
The most significant change within the Core structure
is the introduction of the
Global Community Core (GCC), a merging and transformation
of the prior International Core and Community Collaboration
Core. The GCC will draw together a diverse international
group from academia, government, and community-based organizations.
The goal of the new Core is to ensure that HIV Center researchers
identify and engage all relevant stakeholders in the research
process, participate in genuinely constructive partnerships,
and produce research knowledge that will have a sustainable
impact on the global AIDS epidemic. The Core also strives
to facilitate new and innovative collaborations that are
both inter-disciplinary and multi-sectorial. The expertise
of GCC faculty derives from their extensive experience
in academic research, policy, health practice, and community
service in the US and internationally, including South
Africa, Brazil, China, Mexico, Vietnam, India, and the
Dominican Republic.
 Jessica Justman, M.D.
Most of the investigators and consultants of the GCC
had previously served on either the International Core
or the Community Collaboration Core, including Core Director
Robert Remien, Ph.D.
and Co-Directors
Laurie Bauman, Ph.D., and
Richard Parker,
Ph.D. Three new Co-Investigators will be
Elaine Abrams, M.D.,
Jessica Justman,
M.D., and Patrick
Wilson, Ph.D. of the
Columbia
University Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH).
 Patrick Wilson, Ph.D.
Other new Core members from outside Columbia University
include Elizabeth Begier, M.D., Medical Director for Special
Projects at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene,
Veriano Terto, M.D., Executive Director of the Brazilian
Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA), and Eleanor
Preston-Whyte, Ph.D., Director of Social and Behavioural
Sciences at HIVAN (Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking) at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
Four existing Cores will also be continuing with some
new areas of emphasis and new personnel. The
Development Core (Director:
Alex Carballo-Diéguez, Ph.D.) will continue to provide
an organizational home to an array of activities designed
to enhance the capacity of HIV Center investigators to
conduct effective and innovative research, and will include
two major new areas of emphasis. Core Co-Investigator
Iván Balán, Ph.D.
will facilitate new Intercultural Sensitivity trainings
tailored to the needs of HIV Center investigators.
Core Co-Investigator
Ana Ventuneac, Ph.D.
will also work with investigators to promote new information
technologies that can advance their research design and
implementation.
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 Sherry Glied, Ph.D.
The Ethics and Policy
Core (Director: Robert Klitzman, M.D.)will enhance
the Center's ability to address ethical issues and and
contribute to resolving them. A new focus within the Core
will be on health economics, as reflected in the addition
of three new Co-Investigators. Two are professors
in the MSPH Department of Health Policy and Management:
Sherry Glied, Ph.D.
and Joshua Graff
Zivin, Ph.D..
 Peter Bearman, Ph.D.
The third is Paul
Applebaum, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Director
of the Division of Psychiatry, Law, and Ethics in the Department
of Psychiatry. Also joining the Core are by two new Consultants:
Peter Bearman, Ph.D.,
the former Chair of the Columbia Department of Sociology
and Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research
and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia, and Florencia Luna, a Professor
and Director of the Certificate of Studies in Bioethics
of the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO)
at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina.
 Florencia Luna, Ph.D.
The Interdisciplinary Research
Methods Core (IRMC, Director: Heino Meyer-Bahlburg,
Dr. rer. nat.) will continue to serve as an interdisciplinary
advisory and oversight resource to project investigators
through group and individual consultations. The
Statistics, Epidemiology, and
Data Management (SED) Core (Director: Bruce Levin,
Ph.D.) will also continue to serve as a center of excellence
for the design and analysis of HIV Center studies, with
Alan Berkman, M.D.
also succeeding Ezra
Susser, M.D., M.P.H., as Co-Director for Epidemiology.
The Core will also be joined by Co-Investigator
Denis Nash, Ph.D,
an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at MSPH.
 New HIV Center Associate Directors Alex Carballo-
Diéguez, Ph.D. and Wafaa El-Sadr, M.D., M.P.H. at the
HIV Center's 20th anniversary event.
As previously, the Administrative
Core (Director: Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D.) will provide
scientific and programmatic leadership and guidance for
all HIV Center research projects. Two new Associate Directors
have been appointed to the Center leadership team: long-time
HIV Center investigator
Alex Carballo-Diéguez.
Ph.D., and
Wafaa El-Sadr, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the
International Center
for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) at MSPH.
 Cynthia Gomez, Ph.D.
Two new Senior Advisors will also join the HIV Center:
Cynthia Gomez, Ph.D. Professor in the Department of Health
Education at San Francisco State University and Marjorie
Hill, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Gay Men's Health
Crisis.
 Marjorie Hill, Ph.D.
In addition, the Administrative Core will coordinate a
new Strategic Planning Group, a highly esteemed group of
experts in the field of HIV/AIDS from around the world
to assure that the Center's research agenda remains
dynamic and responsive to the evolving epidemic. |
