Designing and Disseminating HIV Research
In college, Dr. Susan Witte spent her class time in public policy courses and her personal time on the Duke University crew team. She enjoyed the intense, single-minded teamwork required in crew.
Although she left behind that world of competitive sports when she graduated, Dr. Witte hoped to again be part of a team focused on a common goal.
As a newly tenured member of the School of Social Work faculty, Dr. Witte has gotten her wish. She traces her interest in HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention research to her college days.
“I had graduated with a degree in women’s studies and public policy, and I was drawn to what was, at that time, this terminal illness tied to intimacy … that stigmatized hemophiliac children … that was steeped in sexuality and gender-based issues,” she says.
She worked first as a volunteer at AIDS Related Community Services in Elmsford, N.Y., and then as a clinical practitioner, but soon realized that she could have more of an effect on policy and programming as a researcher.
For more than 15 years, Dr. Witte has worked with Dr. Nabila El-Bassel at the Social Intervention Group (SIG). She and SIG have received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for Project Connect, a couples-based intervention for HIV prevention that has been adopted by 80 clinics in New York State.
“Dr. Witte is committed to advance the science of HIV dissemination research by studying the process of implementation of evidenced-based prevention models in real-world settings,” Dr. El-Bassel says. “The findings of this [Project Connect] research will make a strong contribution to HIV dissemination research and the field.”
Funded by the NIMH, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institute on Drug Abuse, among others, Dr. Witte is developing interactive, computer-based modules based upon evidence-based prevention techniques that enable clients to actively participate in their own health education.
Her international work in Mongolia has led to reductions in transmission among sex workers and has influenced the Mongolian public health agenda. Dr. Witte says her research there and in Kazakhstan has had a great impact on her work. “My experiences in Central Asia have required me to revisit my understanding of cultural competency and to realize how ethnocentric my practices were,” she says. “These challenges continuously remind me to listen more intently and ask more questions, both in research and in teaching.”
Dr. Witte uses the successes and the challenges that arise in her domestic and international research as case studies in her courses, enabling her to bridge the gap between theory and the real world with her students.
“When I can give [students] examples of our faulty assumptions in research, I think I become more accessible as a faculty member,” she says. “I know that I am making a difference when they are empowered to put into practice the critical thinking and constructive criticism that we teach them.”
In some ways Dr. Witte’s career has required some of the same skills she learned on the crew team. Now she’s serving as a coach for a new generation of social scientists. Once again, she’s part of a single-minded team at SIG, striving to achieve its important goals.