Profiles

Dr. Nina Harawa currently serves as a Program Director and the Communicating PI on the UCLA CTSI TL1 fellowship program. She is a faculty member with extensive knowledge and expertise to share related to community-engaged research, epidemiology, developing and testing health service and behavioral interventions, and HIV-related policy and practice.
Dr. Harawa mentors students, early investigators, fellows and other trainees. While serving as co-Director for the National Coordinating Center for the NIA-funded Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research, Dr. Harawa studied fundamental principles of successful approaches to mentorship and published on best practices for mentorship of underrepresented minority groups in health sciences. In her ongoing leadership roles as Director of the Policy Impact Core of the NIMH-funded UCLA Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS) and Associate Program Director for the National Clinician Scholars Program (NCSP), she also mentors and trains scholars in the areas of health policy and health equity research.
Dr. Harawa’s research, which has been funded by NIH, CDC, and the California HIV/AIDS Research Program, has focused on the distribution and determinants of HIV/STD risk behaviors, disease, and service utilization in under-resourced populations. In addition, Dr. Harawa has co-developed and tested several holistic interventions to promote HIV/STI/substance abuse prevention and linkage to services in these groups.
Dr. Harawa’s research has included both qualitative and quantitative observational studies and randomized controlled trials of interventions. The latter are generally conducted in community settings, often in partnership with local CBOs using community-partnered research approaches. These interventions use holistic approaches to address the roles of culture, social/familial support, homophobia, racism, substance use, structural barriers, and gender expectations in health risk behaviors and health care engagement.