New Chair: Kathleen J. Sikkema, PhD
The Department of Sociomedical Sciences is excited to welcome Kathleen J. Sikkema, PhD as the incoming Chair on July 1. She previously served as the Gosnell Family Professor of Global Health, and Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. Prof. Sikkema is a clinical psychologist with emphases in health and community psychology and served as the Director of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the Duke Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), Director of Global Mental Health, and Director of Doctoral Programs at the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI).
For nearly thirty years, Prof. Sikkema’s research program focused on the conduct of community-based randomized, controlled HIV prevention and mental health intervention trials, across a variety of populations, both in the U.S. and in South Africa. Her expertise includes mental health interventions focused on traumatic stress, global mental health, gender violence, HIV care engagement, community-level prevention interventions, and university-community research collaboration.