CIRA Welcomes New and Returning REIDS Fellows

CIRA and the Yale School of Public Health recently welcomed eight junior faculty from around the U.S. for the annual Summer Institute sponsored by the Research Education Institute for Diverse Scholars (REIDS), an intensive four-week program that featured daily seminars in implementation science, grant writing, and professional development. During their time at Yale, the REIDS Fellows developed a pilot project proposal and were mentored on HIV community-based implementation science by top HIV researchers at CIRA as well as REIDS alumni peer mentors. Each Fellow is eligible to receive a $20,000 grant to conduct their pilot study.

"As a returning fellow, this mentorship program has allowed me to establish connections with other junior investigators who are conducting innovative HIV work," said Dalmacio Dennis Flores, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. "REIDS alumni also give us insight on multiple issues we will encounter in this early stage of our career and the ways we can navigate and troubleshoot emergent concerns. Due to the summer intensives at Yale I feel much more confident going back to my home institution as I start my first year as Assistant Professor."

This year’s REIDS Fellows are:

• Sierra Carter, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University. Sierra Carter’s research focus is in the area of health disparities and she investigates how psychosocial and contextual stressors can affect both mental and physical health outcomes for underrepresented and marginalized populations.
• LaDrea Ingram, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of South Carolina, Arnold School of Public Health, Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior. Dr. Ingram’s research focuses on interpersonal relationships in African American women, HIV risk behaviors, health disparities, and intergenerational behavioral health outcomes that persist across generations.
• Natalie M. Leblanc, Assistant Professor, University of Rochester School of Nursing. Her research interest is in addressing health disparity through the use of couples-centered HIV prevention interventions.
• Steven Meanley, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. His research interests focus on the value of health-promotive social resources and how they seek to build resilience in sexual minority communities.
• Sarah Abboud, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing, Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science. Dr. Abboud’s research focuses on sexual health promotion among Arabs and Arab Americans, including examination of multi-level determinants that influence sexual behaviors and overall health throughout the immigration process.
• Madina Agénor, Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Agénor’s research interests include intersectional health and health care inequities, cancer screening and prevention among marginalized groups, social inequalities in women’s and girls’ health and health care, LGBTQ health and health care, and community-engaged research.
• Keosha T. Bond is an Assistant Professor of Health Behavior and Community Health, Department of Public Health, New York Medical College. Dr. Bond’s research focuses on the complex intersections of race, sexuality, social justice, and health disparities among individuals in the femme continuum (cisgender and transgender women) with the concentration of eHealth intervention development.
• Dalmacio Dennis Flores, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Dr. Flores’ research interests include family-based HIV risk reduction targeting LGBTQ youth.

Now in its 8th year, REIDS has trained 32 scholars and helped position them for careers in HIV research. The National Institute of Mental Health refunded the program with a $1.3 million grant in 2015.