Professor and Associate Dean for Research

The main focus of Dr. Gwadz’s research is the development and evaluation of potent, innovative, and culturally salient social/behavioral interventions to address racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender inequity in health. Her work with vulnerable adolescent and adult populations spans three decades and focuses on populations such as persons with substance use problems, sexual and gender minorities, heterosexuals in high-risk contexts, populations with high rates of criminal justice involvement, runaway/homeless youth, and people of color living with HIV from low socioeconomic status backgrounds. Dr. Gwadz’s program of research has been continually funded by the NIH since 2000. Dr. Gwadz is an expert on the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), a framework for developing efficient and cost-effective interventions with no inactive, poorly performing, or counter-productive elements. She is currently Co-Principal Investigator on a NIDA-funded study using MOST to optimize an intervention for vulnerable populations living with HIV (R01DA040480) with Dr. Linda Collins, the original developer of MOST. Their study is the first application of the MOST framework in the field of HIV treatment and prevention.

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