Bio
For the past ten years, Mark Paige has worked in behavior science and HIV prevention research. He has focused on designing and testing community level-interventions to reduce HIV-related stigma, homophobia, and racism. Mark is currently the Project Director and Co-Investigator of P3: Estimating the Impact of a Multilevel, Multicomponent Intervention to Increase Uptake of HIV Testing and Biomedical HIV Prevention among African American/Black Gay, Bisexual, and Same-gender Loving Men, and CHHARGE, a community-level intersectional sigma, prevention study. Both studies are now housed at SIG. Mark was also the Project Director for CHHANGE, a community-level, anti-HIV stigma and homophobia intervention, and TRUST, an HIV self-testing intervention within the Laboratory of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Laboratory of Infectious Disease - Project ACHIEVE, part of the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute at the New York Blood Center.
He came to Columbia after spending the last four years in the School of Community Health and Social Medicine within the Laboratory of Urban Community Health at the City University of New York School of Medicine. For the past ten years, Mark has managed and assisted in designing and testing HIV prevention interventions among Black and Latinx MSM and transgender women. Most of Mark's professional training and specialist work has been in qualitative research on Black gay men's health, using qualitative methods to understand better how neighborhoods, i.e., African American/Black and Latino communities and network attributes, influence Black and Latino gay men and transgender women's health and well-being.
Earlier in his career, Mark was the Campus Minister and Chair of the Theology Department for Bishop Frances-Essex Catholic Prep and Rice College Prep. He worked professionally in parish ministry within the Episcopal church and the Roman Catholic church. Mark holds a dual BA in Sociology and Religious Studies from Saint Leo University, an MA from Caldwell University in Pastoral Ministry/Theology, and an AAS from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Accessories Design. Mark's passion is research and bringing healing into people's lives.