Bio:

Dr. Rogério Meireles Pinto is a Brazilian-born psychiatric social worker. He has a decade of practice experience with immigrants and ethnic/racial minority individuals, groups, and families. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Dr. Pinto provided mental health services, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, to youth, adults and families, and concrete and clinical services to mentally challenged individuals in low-income communities. As a Community Organizer, Dr. Pinto conducted community-wide needs and resources assessments, program evaluations, and supervision and implementation of curricula on HIV and substance abuse prevention.

Dr. Pinto has conducted and taught courses on Community-Based Participatory Research and Advocacy in Social Work Practice. He graduated from a three-year NIMH-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where he launched his research agenda, developing evidence-based models of effective community-researcher partnerships.

Dr. Pinto’s research seeks modifiable factors that facilitate development and maintenance of partnerships between researchers and service providers in the United States (New York City, NY and Newark, NJ), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Santa Luzia), and Spain (Madrid). This research aims to establish, in diverse contexts, the critical role providers can play in health research and how, in turn, they become more likely to provide evidence-based services.

Dr. Pinto’s research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, the Institute for Latin American Studies, the Columbia University School of Social Work, the International Association of Schools of Social Work, and Columbia University’s Diversity Initiative Research Fellowship.

Research Interests:

• Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
• Mixed-method research
• HIV prevention practice and research
• Racial, ethnic and sexual minorities
• Collaborative research with service providers
  

Awards:

• Latino Social Work Task Force 2011. Promoting Social Work Leadership On Behalf of the Latino Community.

• Society for Social Work Research 2010 Early Career Achievement Award.

• Society for Social Work Research 2004 Outstanding Social Work Dissertation Award. Factors that Influence African-American Women’s Participation in HIV Prevention Programs.

• Columbia University School of Social Work. Ph.D. graduation speaker, May 21, 2003.

• Council on Social Work Education: Clinical Minority Fellowship Program: 2000-2003.

• Citation of Honor, New York State Senator Daniel R. Hevesi: for commitment to substance abuse prevention in Community Board 8, Flushing, New York. July 23, 2001.

Current Projects:

• Promoting Community Collaboration in HIV Research. Funded by the NIMH, the goal of this study is to identify factors that influence research collaboration and to test a model of collaboration among service providers. This study is being replicated with providers in Madrid.
  
  
• Promoting Community Collaboration in Scientific Research. The study's goal is to define specific mechanisms involved in the development of community partnerships for research. It is a Research Fellowship awarded by the Columbia University Diversity Program.
  
  
• Studying a Community-focused Model of Disease Prevention in Brazil. This study examines community-focused health service delivered by social work paraprofessionals in Brazil. Funded by the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the Institute of Latin America Studies at Columbia University.

Selected Publications & Presentations:

Book Chapters
Pinto, R. M. (2010). Mixed Methods Design. Encyclopedia of Research Design. In N. J. Salkind (Ed.). SAGE Publications.

Journal Articles
Pinto, R. M., Soriano, R., & Bulhões, S. S.  (2012). Community Health Workers in Brazil’s Unified Health System: A Framework of their Praxis and Contributions to Patient Health Behaviors. Social Science & Medicine, 74, 940-47.

Pinto, R. M., da Siva, S. Bulhões, Penido, C., & Spector, A. International Participatory Research Framework: Triangulating procedures to build health research capacity in Brazil. Health Promotion International, first published online December 5, 2011 doi:10.1093/heapro/dar090.

Pinto, R. M., Campbell, A. N. C., Hien, D., Yu, G., & Gorroochurn, P. (2011). Retention in the NIDA Clinical Trials Network Women and Trauma Study: Implications for Post-trial Implementation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81, 211–217.

Pinto, R. M., Spector, A. Y., & Valera, P. A. (2011). Exploring group dynamics for integrating scientific and experiential knowledge in Community Advisory Boards for HIV research. AIDS Care, 23, 1006-1013.

Spector, A. Y. & Pinto, R. M. (2011). Let's talk about sex: helping substance abuse counselors address HIV prevention with men who have sex with men. Culture, Health & Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention & Care, 13, 399-413.

Marhefka, S. L., Valentin, C, Pinto, R. M., Demetriou, N., Wiznia, A., & Mellins, C. A. (2011). "I feel like I’m carrying a weapon around with me:” Information and motivations related to sexual risk for girls living with HIV. AIDS Care, 23, 1321-8.

Pinto, R. M., Yu, G., Spector, A. Y., Gorroochurn, P., & McCarty, D. (2010). Substance abuse treatment providers' involvement in research is associated with willingness to use findings in practice. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 39, 188-194.

Pinto, R. M. (2009). Community perspectives on factors that influence collaboration in public health research. Health Behavior and Education, 36, 930-947. 

Melendez, R. M. & Pinto, R. M. (2009). HIV Prevention and Primary Care for Transgender Women in a Community-Based Clinic. Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 20, 387-397.

Pinto, R. M., Melendez, R., & Spector, A. (2008). Male-to-female transgender individuals building social support and capital from within a gender-focused network. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services, 20, 203-220.

Pinto, R. M., McKay, M. M. & Escobar, C. (2008). “You've gotta know the community:" Minority women make recommendations about community-focused health research. Women and Health, 47, 83-104.

Dworkin, S. L., Pinto, R. M., Hunter, J., Rapkin, B., & Remien, R. (2008). Keeping the Spirit of Community Partnerships Alive in the Scale Up of HIV/AIDS Prevention: Critical Reflections on the Roll Out of DEBI (Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions). American Journal of Community Psychology, 42, 51-59.

Melendez, R., & Pinto, R. M. (2007). “It’s really a hard life:” Safety, gender and HIV risk among male-to-female transgender persons. Culture, Health & Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention & Care, 3, 233-245.

Pinto, R. M, Schmidt, C. N. T., Rodriguez, P. S. O., & Solano, R. (2007). Using Principles of Community Participatory Research: Groundwork for collaboration in Brazil.” International Social Work, 50, 53-65.

Remien, R., Bastos, F. I., Terto Jr., V., Raxach, J. C., Pinto, R. M., et al. (2007).  Adherence to antiretroviral therapy in a context of universal access, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. AIDS Care, 19, 740-48.

Pinto, R. M., & McKay, M. M. (2006). A mixed method analysis of African American women’s attendance at an HIV prevention intervention.
Journal of Community Psychology, 34, 601-616.

Pinto, R. M. & McKay, M. M. (2006). Lessons learned from African American women about participation in a family-based HIV prevention program. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 87, 285-292. 

Presentations
Pinto, R. M., Yu, G., Spector, A. Y., Gorroochurn, P., & McCarty, D. (2012, March). Substance Abuse Treatment Providers' Involvement in Research is Associated with Willingness to Use Findings in Practice. World Psychiatric Association Epidemiology and Public Health, São Paulo, Brazil.

Pinto, R. M., da Silva, S. B., & Soriano, R. (2011, March). Community Health Workers in Brazil’s Unified Health System: A Framework of their Praxis and Contribution toward Health Outcomes. International Conference on Urban Health, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.

Pinto, R. M., Penido, C., Rahman, R., & Spector, A. (2011, March). Do Community Health Workers, Nurses and Physicians Differ in Their Perceived Self-efficacy and Confidence? Implications for Research and Practice. International Conference on Urban Health, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.

Pinto, R. M., Campbell, A. N. C., Hien, D., Yu, G., & Gorroochurn, P. (2011, March). Retention in the NIDA Clinical Trials Network Women and Trauma Study: Implications for Post-trial Implementation. Fourth Congress on Women Mental Health, Madrid, Spain.

Pinto, R. M. & Giménez, S. (2011, March). What Makes or Breaks Provider-Researcher Collaborations in HIV Research? An Analysis of Providers’ Willingness to Collaborate. Oxford, England.

Last updated April 10, 2012.