Nina Harawa

Dr. Harawa is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Fielding School of Public Health and the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She is also a professor of Medicine at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, where she serves as Associate Director of Research for the Drew Center for AIDS Research, Education, and Services (Drew CARES). Trained in epidemiology, Dr. Harawa’s research involves developing and testing holistic interventions for encouraging prevention, care, and treatment for HIV, STIs, and substance use disorders and leading efforts to examine the impact of various policies on racial/ethnic health disparities. She also directs the Policy Impact Core of the NIMH-funded UCLA Center for HIV Identification Prevention and Treatment Services (CHIPTS), which examines how proposed and enacted policies may support or hinder efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the United States and abroad. Because of her commitment to health equity, Dr. Harawa started REACH UCLA Health, a faculty group dedicated to increasing access to the UCLA Health system for people of color and those with publicly-funded health coverage. 

She has conducted innovative research with a variety of populations – including sexual minority men of color, Black and Latina cis-gender women, transgender women of all backgrounds, and sexual and gender minorities who have experienced incarceration.  Much of this work has involved partnering with local governmental and community organizations. She currently co-leads two multi-site NIH-funded studies. One examines the impacts of incarceration and related interventions and policies on HIV in Black men who have sex with men through agent-based modelling. The second is testing an intervention to help HIV-positive young people leaving incarceration to link to and be retained in HIV medical care. In addition, she leads a California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP) study to test the effectiveness of a peer-supported, incentive- and mobile app-based intervention to encourage PrEP uptake and ongoing HIV/STI screening for people leaving jail. 

 

Education

  • PhD, Epidemiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
  • MPH, Epidemiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA

Related Tags

Areas of Interest

HIV epidemiology, prevention, testing, and retention in care; Sexually transmitted diseases epidemiology and prevention; Health disparities and social determinants of health; Incarceration and health; Related health policies.

Selected Publications

  • Harawa NT, Wilton L, Wang L, Mao C, Kuo I, Penniman T, Shoptaw S, Griffith S, Williams JK, Cummings V, Mayer K, Koblin B; HPTN 061.  Types of female partners reported by black men who have sex with men and women (MSMW) and associations with intercourse frequency, unprotected sex and HIV and STI prevalence. AIDS Behav. 2014 Aug;18(8):1548-59. doi: 10.1007/s10461-014-0704-4.  PMID:24523006; PMCID: PMC4169287[Available on 2015/8/1]  

  • Harawa NT, Obregon NB, McCuller WJ.  Partnerships between Black women and behaviorally bisexual men: Implications for HIV risk and prevention.  Sex Cult. 2014 Dec;18(4):870-891. doi:10.1007/s12119-014-9227-4. Published online: 18 Apr 2014.  PMID:25422580; PMCID:PMC4239658[Available on 2015/12/1] 

  • Asare Bempong G, Ramamurthi HC, McCuller J, Williams JK, Harawa NT.  Recruiting Black men who have sex with men and women (BMSMW) in an urban setting for HIV prevention research.  J AIDS Clin Res. 2014 Dec 30;6(1). pii: 408. doi: 10.4172/2155-6113.1000408. PMID: 25984392; PMCID: PMC4433157. 

  • Bracken NE, Hilliard C, McCuller WJ, Harawa NT.  Facilitators of HIV medical care engagement among former prisoners.  AIDS Educ Prev. 2015 Dec;27(6):566-83. doi: 10.1521/aeap.2015.27.6.566. PMID: 26595268; PMCID: PMC5140274. 

  • Nelson LE, Wilton L, Moineddin R, Zhang N, Siddiqi A, Sa T, Harawa NT, Regan R, Penniman Dyer T, Watson CC, Koblin B, del Rio C, Buchbinder S, Wheeler DP, and Mayer KH for the HPTN 061 Study Team.  Economic, legal and social hardships associated with HIV risk among Black men who have sex with men in six US cities.  J Urban Health.  2016 Feb;93(1):170-88. doi: 10.1007/s11524-015-0020-y. PMID: 26830422; PMCID: PMC4794466. 

  • del Pino HE, Harawa NT, Liao D, Moore AA, Karlamangla A.  Age and age discordance associations with condomless sex among men who have sex with men. AIDS Behav. 2017 Jan 31. doi 10.1007/s10461-017-1694-9. PMID: 28144790; PMCID: PMC5537058 

  • Harawa NT, Manson SM, Mangione CM, Penner LA, Norris KC, DeCarli C, Scarinci IC, Zissimopoulos J, Buchwald DS, Hinton L, Pérez-Stable EJ.  Strategies for enhancing research in aging health disparities by mentoring diverse investigators.  J Clin Transl Sci. 2017 1-9. doi:10.1017/cts.2016.23 PMCID: PMC5573262 

  • Beymer MR, Harawa NT, Weiss RE, Shover CL, Toynes BR, Meanley S and Bolan RK. Are partner race and intimate partner violence associated with incident and newly diagnosed HIV infection in African-American men who have sex with men? J Urban Health. 2017 June 14. doi: 10.1007/s11524-017-0169-7 PMID: 28616719; PMCID: PMC5610124 

  • Bruce MA, Martins D, Duru K, Beech BM, Sims M, Harawa NT, Vargas R, Kermah D, Nicholas SB, Brown Arleen, Norris KC. Church attendance, allostatic load and mortality in middle aged adults. PLoS One. 2017 May 16 2(5), e0177618. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0177618. PMID: 28520779; PMCID: PMC5433740 

  • Harawa NT, Amani B, Bowers JR, Sayles JN, Cunningham W. Understanding interactions of formerly incarcerated HIV positive men and transgender women with substance use treatment, medical, and criminal justice systems. Int J Drug Policy. 2017 Oct;48;63-71 doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.05.013. Epub 2017 Aug 9. PMID: 28804052; PMCID: PMC5620016 

  • Joseph HA, Pan Y, Mendoza M, Harawa NT, Lauby J, Hosek SG, Bluthenthal RN, Milnamow M, Fernandez MI, Jeffries WL IV, Belcher L, Millett GA. HIV acquisition and transmission potential among African-American men who have sex with men and women in three U.S. cities. Arch Sex Behav. 2018 Jan;47(1):183-194. doi: 10.1007/s10508-017-1052-z. Epub 2017 Nov 9. PMID: 29124541 

  • Ladapo JA, Richards AK, DeWitt CM, Harawa NT, Shoptaw S, Cunningham WE, Mafi JN. Disparities in the quality of cardiovascular care between HIV-infected versus HIV-uninfected adults in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Study. J Am Heart Assoc, 2017; 6(11). doi: 10.1161/jaha.117.007107. PMID: 29138182; PMCID: PMC5721786 

  • *Li M, Guentzel Frank H, Harawa NT, Williams JK, Chou C, Bluthenthal RN.  Racial pride and condom use in post-incarcerated African American men who have sex with men and women: Test of a conceptual model for the Men in Life Environments intervention.  Arch Sex Behav. 2018 Jan;47(1): 169-181. doi: 10.1007/s10508-016-0734-2. PMID: 27115618; PMCID: PMC5153365 

  • *Lea, CH, 3rd, Gideonse TK, Harawa NT, An examination of consensual sex in a men's jail.  Int J Prisoner Health. 2018 March 12;14(1):56-62  doi: 10.1108/IJPH-08-2016-0047. PMID: 29480771 

  • *Cunningham WE, Seiden DS, Nakazono T, Malek M, Kulkarni S, Sayles JN, Ettner SL, Shoptaw SJ, Harawa NT. Effectiveness of a peer navigation intervention to sustain viral suppression among HIV-positive men and transgender women released from jail the LINK LA randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med.2018 April 1;178(4):542-553. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.0150. PMID: 29532059 PMCID: PMC58885257 

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