Nathan Hansen, Ph.D.

• Director of HIV Prevention and Mental Health Research. The Consultation Center

• Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine

• Director, Development Core, CIRA

• Investigator, Clinical and Health Services Research Core, CIRA

• Member, Executive Committee, CIRA

Biography:

Nathan B. Hansen, Ph.D., is the Director of HIV Prevention and Mental Health Research at The Consultation Center and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Hansen is Director of the Development Core, a Core scientist on the Clinical and Health Services Research Core at CIRA, and serves as the Acting Director of Training within CIRA.

Dr. Hansen has considerable experience in intervention development having served as an investigator on several NIH-funded RCTs of interventions to enhance the mental health and coping of people living with HIV, as well as additional studies on the impact of trauma, particularly interpersonal violence, on the mental health and risk behavior of people living with HIV. These include an RCT for a group psychotherapy intervention for people living with HIV who were sexually abused as children or adolescents, a study examining the impact of physical and sexual abuse on HIV risk among adults with severe mental illness, and developing a group HIV prevention intervention for women who had experienced sexual assault or intimate partner violence in South Africa.

Additionally, Dr. Hansen has conducted research examining the link between mental illness and substance use among people living with HIV. He is currently the PI of a K23 award developing an individual psychotherapy intervention for people living with HIV who were sexually abused as children or adolescents that aims to reduce trauma symptoms and sexual and substance use-related HIV-risk behavior. Dr. Hansen has extensive research and clinical experience, both domestically and internationally, in HIV and substance abuse prevention, the treatment of trauma and substance abuse/dependence, intervention development, and measure development.

Dr. Hansen is also actively involved in the training and mentoring of domestic and international pre- and postdoctoral fellows in substance abuse and HIV prevention and treatment.

CIRA Affiliated Projects:

• Efficacy Trial of a Brief Health Enhancement Intervention for Newly Diagnosed Men

• Facilitators and Barriers to Addressing Intimate Partner Violence in CT HIV/AIDS Services Agencies

• Identifying Adolescents at Risk for Transitioning into Injection Drug Use in Russian Cities: Preliminary Research

• Intervention to Reduce Acute Stress and HIV Risk in Newly HIV Diagnosed Men

• Reducing Violence and HIV Risk among War-Exposed Liberian Youth