Staff & Researchers

 

Edward C. Green, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist and Director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project

click here to view Dr. Green's CV and links to selected publications

Dr. Green is a medical anthropologist with over 30 years of experience in developing countries in applied research, project design, implementation, and evaluation, as well as in social marketing and behavior change & communication (BCC) health education. Prior to joining the APRP, he was Takemi Fellow at the Department of Population and International Health, Harvard School of Public Health. His sectoral experience includes AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, family planning, primary health care, maternal and child health, children affected by war, water and sanitation. Dr. Green is a specialist in integrating traditional (indigenous) and “modern” health systems, and has pioneered a number of collaborative programs in AIDS prevention and primary health care involving African healers. His 2003 book, Rethinking AIDS Prevention, has helped shape current U.S. AIDS prevention policy, as embodied in the ABC policies of USAID and PEPFAR. He is a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS, (PACHA); a recent member of the Advisory Council of the Office of AIDS Research, Department of Health and Human Services; the board of AIDS.org; the board of the National Foundation for Alternative Medicine; and several other boards of directors. Dr. Green is the author of five books and over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and commissioned technical reports.

 

Daniel Halperin, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist

click here to view links to selected presentations and publications

Prior to joining the APRP, Dr. Halperin was the Senior HIV Prevention and Behavior Change Advisor at USAID in Washington,DC. Dr. Halperin has conducted epidemiological and ethnographic research for over thirty years on a number of health and sociocultural issues in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions. Since completing doctoral training in cultural/medical anthropology and Latin American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley in 1995, his work has mainly focused on the heterosexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Most of his research and scientific publications (including in leading journals such as The Lancet, British Medical Journal, AIDS, etc.) have dealt with some of the previously more neglected HIV co-factors, such as concurrent sexual partner networks, lack of male circumcision, “dry sex” practices, alcohol use, and heterosexual anal intercourse. He has conducted field research and consultations over the years in a number of countries, including Brazil, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, the Dominican Republic, Peru and in various inner-city U.S. communities, and has an extensive background working with at-risk youth, particularly socially disadvantaged young men.

 

Allison Herling Ruark, MSPH, Research Fellow

Ms. Ruark holds an M.S. in Public Health at Oregon State University, and while earning this degree conducted qualitative research with youth in Uganda about the sociocultural context of delay of sexual debut. Ms. Ruark has also worked or conducted research in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, and other countries in Africa. Prior to joining the APRP, she worked with USAID-funded HIV prevention, support, and orphan care programs under Catholic Relief Services and Medical Service Corporation International. Her current research focuses on youth and women, specifically youth sexual behavior and the timing of sexual debut, the transition to adulthood among adolescents, links between youth and adult sexual behavior, HIV risk within marriage, and the vulnerability of women to HIV.

 

Timothy Mah, MSc, Research Fellow

Mr. Mah received his Master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health in June 2006 and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Population and International Health at Harvard.  Prior to pursuing his graduate degree, Mr. Mah worked with the Public Policy and Communications Department at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.  He also served two years with the U.S. Peace Corps as a community health and HIV/AIDS education volunteer in The Gambia, West Africa.  In that capacity, he developed and implemented numerous HIV prevention initiatives targeted at young people. Mr. Mah’s research interests are in HIV prevention and in particular in the determinants and predictors of sexual behavior change in response to HIV epidemics. His dissertation research focuses on concurrent sexual partnerships in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area in South Africa. He received his B.A. in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania.