Dr. Alissa Davis conducts research on linkage to and retention in HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STI), and substance use care among marginalized populations, including racial/ethnic and sexual minorities, people who inject drugs, and individuals involved with the criminal justice system.
Bio
Dr. Davis conducts research at SIG and is an Associate Professor at the Columbia School of Social Work.
Dr. Davis was awarded a K01 research grant by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to adapt a couple-based medication adherence intervention for HIV-positive people who inject drugs in Kazakhstan, Smart Couples II.
She and a GHRCCA colleague, Dr. Gaukhar Mergenova, were also awarded an R21 research grant by the NIH Fogarty International Center and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to use crowdsourcing among adolescents and young adults to develop a digital intervention to reduce HIV stigma and increase HIV testing uptake (JasSpark study). Dr. Davis is also working on a pilot study that uses physiological and intensive longitudinal assessments to examine factors associated with mental health and substance use among adolescents in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore the efficacy of a digital intervention.
Prior to her current position, Dr. Davis was an NIH T32 postdoctoral research fellow at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. During her time as postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Davis worked extensively on a number of studies in New York City and Central Asia with researchers at SIG and the Global Health Research Center of Central Asia.
Dr. Davis received her PhD in Epidemiology from Indiana University-Bloomington and her MA in International Relations from Syracuse University.
