Edgar Enrique Sanchez, MPH

Edgar Enrique Sanchez, BS, serves as the CHIPTS Core Coordinator. Responsibilities include supporting center-wide communications (maintaining the CHIPTS website, email listservs, and social media accounts); collecting and organizing information for evaluating center-related activities; supporting center data compilation and literature reviews; and providing administrative and coordination support for center events and meetings. Prior to working with CHIPTS, Mr. Sanchez provided administrative support to both government agencies and local non-profit organizations in Los Angeles County. He is heavily involved in community outreach, having promoted health education on a series of health challenges: Type 2 Diabetes, Leukemia & Lymphoma, and most recently COVID-19. He is a recent graduate from California State University – Los Angeles and has a Bachelor of Science in Public Health.

Contact: EESanchez@mednet.ucla.edu

Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, PhD

Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, PhD is a professor of clinical psychology and Director of the Global Center for Children and Families at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Her research interests include HIV/AIDS prevention with adolescents, children and family wellness, assessment and modification of children’s social skills, suicide among adolescents and homeless youths. Dr. Rotheram-Borus has spent the past 30 years developing, evaluating, and disseminating evidence-based interventions for children and families. She has directed and implemented several landmark intervention studies that have demonstrated the benefits of providing behavior change programs and support to families in risky situations. Several of these programs have received national and international recognition. She mounted and evaluated multiple interventions which have been selected and reviewed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Psychological Association (APA) as efficacious programs. She founded the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS) at UCLA in 1998 and served as its Director from 1998-2016. She currently serves as an expert advisor to the CHIPTS senior leadership team.

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS:

1. Swendeman, D., Rotheram-Borus, M. J., Arnold, E. M., Fernández, M. I., Comulada, W. S., Ishimoto, K., Gertsch, W., Murphy, D. A., Ocasio, M., Lee, S. J., Lewis, K. A., & Adolescent HIV Medicine Trials Network (ATN) CARES Team (2024). Strategies to Facilitate Service Utilization Among Youth at Risk for HIV: A Randomized Controlled Trial (ATN 149). AIDS and behavior, 10.1007/s10461-024-04545-2. Advance online publication.


2. Yalch, M. M., Arnold, E. M., Christodoulou, J., Swendeman, D. T., Kerin, T., Nielsen-Saines, K., Rotheram-Borus, M. J., & ATN Cares Study Group (2024). Influence of trauma on longitudinal association between depressive symptoms and use of alcohol and cannabis among young people. Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy, 10.1037/tra0001749. Advance online publication.


3. Rotheram-Borus, M. J., Tomlinson, M., Stewart, J., Skiti, Z., Rabie, S., Wang, J., Almirol, E., Vogel, L., Christodoulou, J., & Weiss, R. E. (2024). Soccer and Vocational Training are Ineffective Delivery Strategies to Prevent HIV and Substance Abuse by Young, South African Men: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. AIDS and behavior, 28(12), 3929–3943.

Last updated: 1/17/2025

Pamina M. Gorbach, MHS, DrPH

Pamina M. Gorbach, MHS, DrPH, research focuses on bio-behavioral dynamics of sexual health, with a focus on HIV transmission, acquisition and progression, especially around substance abuse. She is a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health and in the Division of Infectious Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine and is co-director of the UCLA Center for AIDS Research Program on Biobehavioral Epidemiology and Substance Use.  In Los Angeles, Dr. Gorbach is the Co-PI with Steven Shoptaw of a National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded research platform based on a cohort of young MSM of color with a large biorepository entitled “The mSTUDY” and CDC funded surveillance of anal HPV among YMSM.  Most recently Dr. Gorbach with Suzanne Siminski from Frontier Science as co-principle investigator was awarded the Collaborating Consortium of Cohorts NIDA Producing Opportunities (C3PNO) to stimulate science utilizing data and specimens across ten NIDA funded North American of HIV infected and at risk longitudinal cohorts by creating a virtual repository and mechanisms to access common data elements.  Dr. Gorbach has also been involved in research and training in Cambodia since 1997 where she heads a Fogarty supported training program in HIV/AIDS.  She is also co-PI with Dr. Judy Currier of the NIMH supported Postdoctoral Fellowship Training Program in Global HIV Prevention Research at UCLA. Her global health experience includes Cambodia, Vietnam, Peru, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Mali, Malawi, South Africa, and Ghana.

Contact: pgorbach@ucla.edu

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS:

1. Rosen, A. D., Javanbakht, M., Shoptaw, S. J., Seamans, M. J., & Gorbach, P. M. (2024). Associations of Sleep Deficiency With Sexual Risk Behaviors and HIV Treatment Outcomes Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Living With or at High Risk of Acquiring HIV. Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999), 96(4), 326–333.


2. Lua, I., Magno, L., Silva, A., Pinto, P., Bastos, J. L., Jesus, G., Coelho, R., Ichihara, M., Barreto, M., Santos, C. T., Moucheraud, C., Gorbach, P., Macinko, J., Souza, L., Dourado, I., & Rasella, D. (2024). The intersecting effects of race, wealth, and education on AIDS incidence, mortality, and case-fatality rate: a Brazilian cohort study of 28.3 million individuals. Research square, rs.3.rs-4314004.


3. Shah, A., Meites, E., Lin, J., Hughes, J. P., Gorbach, P. M., Mustanski, B., Crosby, R. A., Unger, E. R., Querec, T., Golden, M., Markowitz, L. E., & Winer, R. L. (2024). Determinants of Type-Specific Human Papillomavirus Concordance Across Anatomic Sites in Young Men Who Have Sex With Men and Transgender Women, 3 U.S. Cities, 2016-2018. Sexually transmitted diseases, 51(4), 260–269.

Last updated: 1/15/2025

Jennifer Baughman, MPA

Jennifer Baughman, MPA, holds a Master of Public Administration with a focus on nonprofit management. As the Center Administrator, she oversees budget allocations and subcontracting procedures for CHIPTS and regularly monitor spending. She provides guidance and consultation to young Investigators on how to structure their research teams and on issues of compliance with applicable grant and University regulations. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and over 20 years of experience in nonprofit management, the majority of which have been dedicated specifically to coordination of NIH-funded projects including clinical trials and behavioral research.

Contact: jbaughman@mednet.ucla.edu

Thomas Coates, PhD

Thomas J. Coates, PhD, is Director of the University of California Global Health Institute, which brings together the 10-campus UC system to solve global health problems and train future leaders. He is Distinguished Research Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine and Director Emeritus of the UCLA Center for World Health.  Before coming to UCLA, Dr. Coates spent 21 years at the University of California, San Francisco. He co-founded the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) in 1986 and was the Founding Executive Director of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute in 1996.  Both continue with extramural and intramural support. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown declared July 24, 2003 Dr. Thomas J. Coates Day in San Francisco in honor of his work against HIV.  Dr. Coates’ work has focused on HIV testing and community-level prevention interventions.  Dr. Coates’ NIH and foundation supported research continues to focus on HIV prevention with disadvantaged populations, especially in Malawi and South Africa.  His current work focuses on strategies for bringing men into testing and treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis for pregnant and post-partum women, and strategies to enhance the growth and development of HIV-exposed but uninfected infants. Dr. Coates was elected to Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) in 2000.

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS:

1. Joseph Davey, D. L., Mvududu, R., Mashele, N., Bheemraj, K., Khadka, N., Johnson, L. F., Dean, S. S., Gorbach, P., Bekker, L. G., Coates, T. J., & Myer, L. (2024). Initiation and continued use of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis among pregnant and postpartum women in South Africa (PrEP-PP): a demonstration cohort study. The lancet. HIV, 11(11), e746–e755.


2. Court, L., Nelson, A., Taliep, R., Dean, S. S., Mvududu, R., Knight, L., Dovel, K., Coates, T., Myer, L., & Davey, D. L. J. (2024). Health System Factors Influencing the Integration of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis into Antenatal and Postnatal Clinic Services in Cape Town, South Africa. Global health, science and practice, 12(6), e2400166.

3. Nelson, A., Bheemraj, K., Dean, S. S., de Voux, A., Hlatshwayo, L., Mvududu, R., Berkowitz, N., Neumuller, C., Jacobs, S., Fourie, S., Coates, T., Gail-Bekker, L., Myer, L., & Davey, D. J. (2024). Integration of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services for pregnant and breastfeeding women in eight primary care clinics: results of an implementation science study. BMC global and public health, 2(1), 57.

Last updated: 1/15/2025

Uyen H. Kao, MPH

Uyen H. Kao, MPH, currently serves as the Executive Director of CHIPTS.  She has over 15 years of experience in research administration, program management, and grant development. She also has experience in business marketing, organizational management, and assisting organizations in leading, implementing, and monitoring strategic planning processes.   Her past research work has focused on the facilitation of the use of evidence-based practices and prevention interventions in public health and in real-world practice settings.  Ms. Kao has managed numerous research projects from private, local, state, and federal funders in the areas of HIV, STDs, and substance abuse.  She has also worked with the Cochrane Collaboration Drugs and Alcohol Group and for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Contact: ukao@mednet.ucla.edu 

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS:

1. Li, M. J., Chau, B., Garland, W. H., Oksuzyan, S., Weiss, R. E., Takada, S., Kao, U., Lee, S. J., & Shoptaw, S. J. (2023). Racial, gender, and psychosocial disparities in viral suppression trends among people receiving coordinated HIV care in Los Angeles County. AIDS (London, England), 37(9), 1441–1449. https://doi.org/10.1097/QAD.0000000000003578


2. Jolayemi, O., Bogart, L. M., Storholm, E. D., Goodman-Meza, D., Rosenberg-Carlson, E., Cohen, R., Kao, U., Shoptaw, S., & Landovitz, R. J. (2022). Perspectives on preparing for long-acting injectable treatment for HIV among consumer, clinical and nonclinical stakeholders: A qualitative study exploring the anticipated challenges and opportunities for implementation in Los Angeles County. PloS one, 17(2), e0262926. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262926


3. Comulada, W. S., Step, M., Fletcher, J. B., Tanner, A. E., Dowshen, N. L., Arayasirikul, S., Keglovitz Baker, K., Zuniga, J., Swendeman, D., Medich, M., Kao, U. H., Northrup, A., Nieto, O., Brooks, R. A., & Special Projects Of National Significance Social Media Initiative Study Group (2020). Predictors of Internet Health Information-Seeking Behaviors Among Young Adults Living With HIV Across the United States: Longitudinal Observational Study. Journal of medical Internet research, 22(11), e18309. https://doi.org/10.2196/18309

Raphael J. Landovitz, MD, MSc

Raphael LandovitzMDMSc, is Professor of Medicine at the UCLA Center for Clinical AIDS Research & Education. He is also the Center Co-Director of CHIPTS. He has led combination prevention intervention studies and projects using Post-Exposure (PEP) and Pre-Exposure (PrEP) strategies for MSM and TGW, as well as being part of leadership groups of the DAIDS-funded AIDS Clinical Trial Groups (ACTG), HIV Prevention Trial Network (HPTN), and former adolescent Trial Network (ATN). He recently completed a term as chair of the ACTG Antiretroviral Strategies Scientific Committee, is the principal investigator of two multisite PrEP demonstration project in Los Angeles County, and leads the NIH/DAIDS-funded Phase 2 and Phase 3 registrational clinical trials evaluating long-acting injectable Cabotegravir for PrEP. He serves on the Executive Committee of the HIV Prevention Trials Network, and was awarded the HIVMA HIV Research Award in 2017. His research agenda focuses on the optimization of the use of antiretroviral medication for both HIV treatment and HIV prevention.

Contact: rlandovitz@mednet.ucla.edu

 

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS:

1. Delany-Moretlwe, S., Hanscom, B., Guo, X., Nkabiito, C., Mandima, P., Nahirya, P. N., Mpendo, J., Bhondai-Mhuri, M., Mgodi, N., Berhanu, R., Farrior, J., Piwowar-Manning, E., Ford, S. L., Hendrix, C. W., Rinehart, A. R., Rooney, J. F., Adeyeye, A., Landovitz, R. J., Cohen, M. S., Hosseinipour, M. C., … HPTN 084 Study Team (2025). Evaluation of long-acting cabotegravir safety and pharmacokinetics in pregnant women in eastern and southern Africa: a secondary analysis of HPTN 084. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 28(1), e26401.

2. Edupuganti, S., Hurt, C. B., Stephenson, K. E., Huang, Y., Paez, C. A., Yu, C., Yen, C., Hanscom, B., He, Z., Miner, M. D., Gamble, T., Heptinstall, J., Seaton, K. E., Domin, E., Lin, B. C., McKee, K., Doria-Rose, N., Regenold, S., Spiegel, H., Anderson, M., … HVTN 136/HPTN 092 Study Team (2025). Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and neutralisation activities of the anti-HIV-1 monoclonal antibody PGT121.414.LS administered alone and in combination with VRC07-523LS in adults without HIV in the USA (HVTN 136/HPTN 092): a first-in-human, open-label, randomised controlled phase 1 trial. The lancet. HIV, 12(1), e13–e25.


3. Gandhi, R. T., Landovitz, R. J., Sax, P. E., Smith, D. M., Springer, S. A., Günthard, H. F., Thompson, M. A., Bedimo, R. J., Benson, C. A., Buchbinder, S. P., Crabtree-Ramirez, B. E., Del Rio, C., Eaton, E. F., Eron, J. J., Jr, Hoy, J. F., Lehmann, C., Molina, J. M., Jacobsen, D. M., & Saag, M. S. (2024). Antiretroviral Drugs for Treatment and Prevention of HIV in Adults: 2024 Recommendations of the International Antiviral Society-USA Panel. JAMA, 10.1001/jama.2024.24543. Advance online publication.

Last updated: 1/16/2025

Steve Shoptaw, PhD

Steven Shoptaw, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and is the Center Director for CHIPTS. He is Professor in the UCLA Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Vice Chair of Research in Family Medicine. Dr. Shoptaw has a portfolio of work that focuses on the treatment of addiction and HIV prevention in the context of addiction in the Western U.S. where stimulant use is the single strongest predictor of HIV transmission. Dr. Shoptaw is a member of the DAIDS-funded, HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) Executive Committee, and Clinical Site Leader for several HPTN studies, including HPTN 061, which documented that high-risk Black men who have sex with men (MSM) have 7% incidence in Los Angeles. As high rates of stimulant and alcohol use link with new infections in his studies, Dr. Shoptaw also is MPI on a 5-year cooperative agreement (U01 DA036267; the MStudy) to establish a cohort of MSM of color to investigate interactions between non-injection use of methamphetamine, cocaine, opiates and binge drinking and HIV transmission dynamics.

Contact: sshoptaw@mednet.ucla.edu

Featured Publications:

1. Perez-Brumer, A., Schmidt, R., Kennedy, R., Lake, J. E., Villarreal, Y. R., Bornstein, S., Kuo, I., Nieto, O., Franks, J., Denis, C., El-Bassel, N., Shoptaw, S., Davidson, P., & Smith, L. R. (2024). Centering autonomy and choice to support oral PrEP utilization among people who inject drugs: qualitative lessons from HPTN 094 INTEGRA. Addiction science & clinical practice, 19(1), 92.


2. Boyd, D. T., Jones, K. V., Quinn, C. R., Hill, M., Nelson, L. E., Beauchamp, G., Emel, L., Hightow-Weidman, L., Shoptaw, S., Magnus, M., Piwowar-Manning, E., Mayer, K. H., Fields, S. D., Wheeler, D. P., Dyer, T. V., & Wilton, L. (2024). Ethnic identity and social support as mediators between childhood sexual abuse and depression among black men who have sex with men. Child abuse & neglect, 157, 107064.


3. Jesus, M., Ware, D., Meanley, S., Brennan-Ing, M., Okafor, C. N., Shoptaw, S., Haberlen, S., Stosor, V., Friedman, M. R., & Plankey, M. (2024). Disrupting the Path from Depression to Loneliness: Multilevel Resilience among Older Sexual Minority Men with and without HIV. AIDS and behavior, 28(11), 3574–3586.

Last updated: 1/17/2025