I direct the Community Prevention and Intervention Unit of Internal Medicine. This unit is comprised of 40 professionals in epidemiology, health education, counseling, evaluation research, training, planning, and intervention design. The staff specializes in working closely with communities to develop and implement effective programs. The unit conducts epidemiological and intervention research in HIV prevention; it is one of 5 sites conducting HIV incidence studies. It also participates in statewide and regional HIV prevention planning and evaluation programs. It operates an HIV counseling and testing program and a street outreach prevention effort. One of 4 national HIV/STD Prevention behavioral intervention-training centers is part of the unit as is a nation-wide capacity-building assistance program that works with agencies that provide HIV prevention programs to persons living with HIV. In addition to HIV prevention, the staff conducts intervention research into hypertension and cardiovascular disease prevention in the African American communities.
