Dr. Linda Niccolai Assumes Role of CIRA's Development Core Director

Dr. Linda Niccolai has assumed the role of Director of CIRA's Development Core. She will remain the Deputy Director of CIRA's Office of International Training and an investigator with CIRA's Community Research and Implementation Core.

Dr. Niccolai has had many roles at CIRA since becoming an affiliate is 2002. Notable ones include:

• Core Scientist, Community Research Core
• Acting Director, Community Research Core
• Core Scientist, Development Core

Dr. Niccolai is an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health and directs the HPV-IMPACT Project at the Yale Emerging Infections Program.

Her research is primarily focused on sexually transmitted infections (STI), including HIV. Her main area of interest is in public health practice and behavioral aspects of HIV/STI prevention. Specifically, she is interested in studying both individual- and partnership-level determinants of sexual risk behaviors, and population-based patterns of transmission dynamics. Her research includes a focus on the underserved populations of adolescents and women, in the United States and globally.

Dr. Niccolai received her Sc.M. at Harvard School of Public Health and her Ph.D. at Tulane University. She is currently on the editorial boards for Sexually Transmitted Diseases and PLoS One and has served as an advisor and reviewer for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conferences and grant programs. In 2004, she was the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Currently, Dr. Niccolai is involved in three main areas of research. First, she is involved in multiple projects in Russia to understand HIV transmission dynamics among injection drug users and commercial sex workers. Second, she works with the Connecticut Emerging Infections Programs. Finally, she maintains an interest in behavioral epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections including chlamydia. Dr. Niccolai is the author of 77 peer-reviewed journal articles, including 25 as first author. Her papers have been published in strong general and specialty journals, including (but not limited to) AIDS and Behavior, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Prevention Medicine and Sexually Transmitted Infections.