MENTORS 2019
Each SHARP scholar is matched with a mentor team, with whom they work throughout the summer. These mentors provide guidance on the scholar’s project, serve as a sounding board for the scholar’s educational career and goals, and provide coaching on how to work in a public health research environment.
John A. Sauceda, PhD, MSc is one of the principal investigators (MPI) of SHARP and a health psychologist. He is Assistant Professor at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies in the Division of Prevention Science at UCSF. His research aims to improve mental health outcomes and reduce health disparities in Spanish and English-speaking Latino/a communities impacted by HIV. His NIMH-funded research projects include assessing the concept and dimensions of engagement in HIV care among Spanish and English-speaking Latinos in San Francisco, and to model the trajectories of HIV treatment outcomes as a function of depression and substance use in a national cohort of Latinos in HIV care settings. His current NIMH K01 is to develop a sequential multiple assignment randomized trial to develop an adaptive cognitive and behavioral therapy program for depression with the aid of a mobile health tool. He seeks to understand the role of Latino/a culture and Spanish language in mental health treatment utilization and HIV care and treatment management.
Kartika Palar, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of HIV, Infectious Disease and Global Medicine at UCSF. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the social determinants of health in HIV, diabetes and other chronic diseases, with special focus on food insecurity. She is co-Principal Investigator of the Changing Health through Food Support (CHEFS) Study, a randomized trial testing the impact of medically-appropriate food support on health outcomes among low-income people living with HIV in the San Francisco Bay Area, in collaboration with community-based organization Project Open Hand. She is also the Principal Investigator of the 5-year NIH-funded Women, HIV/AIDS and Diabetes (WAND) Study, investigating the role of social and economic factors, including food insecurity, on diabetes health among US women living with HIV. Internationally, she is Principal Investigator of a study to examine the impact of urban gardening on cardiovascular disease risk factors among food-insecure people living with HIV in the Dominican Republic (ProMeSA-CVD). She was recently awarded the CFAR Early Career Investigator Award of Excellence in Behavioral Research for her work addressing social determinants of health in HIV.
Rafael obtained a BA in Psychology from San Francisco State University, and was part of the 2014 SHARP cohort. He is now the Community Program Manager at Bridge HIV at SFDPH. He is interested in addressing the sociocultural and structural barriers that prevent certain communities from accessing HIV/AIDS & health information services. He has helped develop, pilot and implement multiple protocols – including recruitment and retention of participants; oversaw the collection and processing of lab requisitions – including phlebotomy; provided risk reduction and HIV counseling to study participants; and collected, secured and analyzed qualitative/ quantitative data from a variety of research studies.
As a socio-behavioral scientist, Dr. Santiago-Rodríguez is interested in understanding the impact of social determinants of health, including stigma, on the access and use of HIV/AIDS Prevention Services and Care among the Latinx population in the US and Puerto Rico. Her most recent research focused on identifying structural barriers and facilitators for HIV prevention services among young gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Puerto Rico. Dr. Santiago-Rodriguez employs both qualitative and quantitative methods in her research to have a comprehensive understanding of the social determinants of health in study
I am a behavioral scientist with multidisciplinary training from the fields of public health, psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Broadly, my research seeks to understand and intervene upon health behaviors related to HIV/AIDS, alcohol consumption, mental health, and intimate partner violence within international and domestic settings. Specifically, I am interested in dyadic aspects of health within heterosexual and same-sex couples. My research is grounded in theory from the field of relationship science, and employs mixed-methods and innovative dyadic analysis techniques (qualitative and quantitative) to understand couple-level health behavior. My primary line of research takes place in southern Africa (Malawi and South Africa) and aims to understand how relationship factors and primary partners impact engagement in HIV care and treatment. We are currently in the process of translating the findings into an economic and relationship-strengthening intervention for HIV-affected couples who drink alcohol, to ultimately improve relationship functioning and mental/physical health.
Dr. Judy Y. Tan is Assistant Professor of Medicine, at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS), Division of Prevention Science, at UCSF. She received her doctorate in Social Psychology from the University of Connecticut, where she was a fellow in the NIMH T-32 Predoctoral Fellowship, Social Processes of AIDS. She has certifications in Quantitative Research Methods and Health Psychology. Dr. Tan’s research focuses on HIV-related behaviors among gay men of color and is guided by her interest in the health and behavioral impact of social inequality in marginalized and disenfranchised populations. Her work utilizes theory and advanced quantitative methods that include daily process methods and multilevel analyses. Dr. Tan has recently been awarded a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop a couple-based mobile health intervention for enhancing HIV care engagement outcomes among HIV+ black men who have sex with men.