Our Team
Senior Leadership
Adam W. Carrico, PhD is a Professor and Chair in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at Florida International University (FIU). He is a licensed clinical-health psychologist with substantial expertise in developing and testing biobehavioral interventions to optimize HIV prevention in individuals who engage in problematic patterns of stimulant use. His clinical research program focuses on boosting and extending the effectiveness of contingency management for HIV prevention with people who use stimulants. Dr. Carrico’s translational research program seeks to elucidate the neuroimmune pathways that underlie prevalent psychiatric comorbidities relevant to HIV. This includes ongoing efforts to leverage “-omics” approaches (e.g., mRNA gene expression, DNA methylation, and gut microbiome) to examine the complex pathways whereby stimulant use may amplify risk of HIV acquisition or clinical HIV progression.
Dr. Carrico’s clinical and translational research program provides an ideal platform to mentor the next generation of investigators in HIV prevention. He has successfully mentored predoctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty members to obtain NIH funding for their research (i.e., F31, R36, R03, and K23). To date, three of Dr. Carrico’s former trainees have transitioned to pursue independent, R01-funded research programs.
Collaborating Faculty
Leah Davis Ewart, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at FIU. Dr. Davis Ewart is passionate about pursuing a program of research to address intersectional minority stress as a key determinant of stimulant use and HIV in sexual minority men. She oversees the implementation of several, ongoing randomized controlled trials focused on optimizing HIV prevention in sexual minority men who use stimulants.
Delaram Ghanooni, MD, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor and a physician scientist in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at FIU. Dr. Ghanooni’s research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology focuses on examining the biological pathways whereby multi-level determinants influence HIV pathogenesis and cellular aging within underserved and marginalized communities of sexual minority men living in disadvantaged neighborhoods or societies, where inequities, discrimination, and persistent stigma continue to have a profound impact on health and well-being.
José F. Colón Burgos, DrPH began collaborating closely with the iCARUS team during his postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Research on HIV and Drug Abuse in LatinX Communities Living in the United States (CRUSADA) at the Robert Stempel School of Public Health and Social Work. Currently, Dr. Colón Burgos is an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the College of Public Health and Health Professionals at the University of Florida. He is leading FIESTA , a NIDA-funded pilot randomized controlled trial aimed at increasing PrEP use among Latino sexual minority men who use stimulants.
Renessa Williams, PhD, RN is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies. Dr. Williams’ work focuses on understanding and mitigating intersectional stigma and the key mechanisms that contribute to poor health outcomes in persons living with HIV. Her research aims to understand the individual (e.g., depression, substance use) interpersonal (e.g., discrimination, violence) and structural (racism, heterosexism) factors that complicate health inequities among individuals with HIV, especially persons of racial/ethnic minority backgrounds (Blacks/African Americans) and/or sexual minority men. Dr. Williams’ recently funded NIH-funded Career Development Award (K23) seeks to understand the biopsychosocial barriers to HIV prevention, care, and treatment in Black sexual minority men living with HIV.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Chika Chuku, PhD, MPH is a postdoctoral fellow in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at FIU. She is currently developing manuscripts from her dissertation, which examined risk and protective factors relevant to HIV disease management among marginalized, underserved populations of people with HIV. Dr. Chuku’s research interests include Black women’s health, maternal and child health, intersectionality, urban health disparities, environmental epidemiology, HIV, and substance use.
Emily Jayne Ross, MA, PhD is a NIDA T32 postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Surgery at the University of Miami. Dr. Ross investigates the bio-behavioral mechanisms linking psychological difficulties (e.g., loneliness, depression, anxiety, substance abuse) to quality-of-life outcomes in individuals with chronic illnesses, including HIV, cancer, and gastrointestinal disorders. Her ultimate passion is to develop a biobehavioral research program aimed at developing and testing clinical interventions to improve quality of life in people living with gastrointestinal disorders.
Doctoral Students
Rachel Verhagen, MS, is a fourth-year graduate student in the Clinical Health Psychology Program at the University of Miami. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology from California State University, Los Angeles. Rachel’s primary research interests focus on therapeutic processes specifically related to Motivational Interviewing. She is also interested in how the experience self-conscious emotions, like shame and guilt, exacerbate physical and mental health symptoms, particularly for racial/ethnic and sexual minorities.
Jennifer V. Chavez, MPH, is a first year PhD student in the Brain, Behavior and Environment Program at FIU. Jennifer’s research interests are rooted in psychoneuroimmunology and translational science. She is interested in understanding how endogenous factors (biological vulnerability, neuroimmunometabolic pathways) and exposomic factors (environmental toxicity and other social determinants of health) interact to impact substance use and neuropsychiatric comorbidities, in people with HIV. Jennifer is also a recipient of a CFAR CDEIPI pilot award, which focuses on examining t-cell activation and exhaustion in the CRUSH cohort. Jennifer currently supports the implementation of the Treatment Research Investigating Depression Effects on Neuroimmune Targets (TRIDENT) clinical trial.
Michaela E. Larson, MPH, is a first year PhD student of Epidemiology in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at FIU. Michaela’s research focuses on understanding epigenetic mechanisms relevant to cardiometabolic comorbidities in people with HIV, and identifying biomarkers that may be leveraged to predict cardiovascular risk. Currently, Michaela serves as the data manager for Dr. Claudia Martinez’s NIDA Avenir award, CANNHEART, which investigates the role of cannabis use on cardiovascular disease among people living with HIV. Michaela is also a CFAR CDEIPI pilot awardee. Her project will focus on the characterization of microRNAs and their role in CVD in people with and without HIV. Michaela supports the implementation of START and biospecimen handling in the iCARUS lab.
Research Staff
Chelsea Valdivia Henderson, MA is the Administrative Director for all iCARUS projects where she manages ongoing reporting and regulatory requirements. Ms. Henderson has extensive expertise implementing clinical and neurobehavioral research studies such as the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, which focused on the health and well-being of former NFL players. She contributes extensively to the implementation of the PARTI and TRIDENT randomized controlled trials.
Britt DeVries, MBA is the lead iCARUS data scientist where she integrates high dimensional data from self-report measures, neuropsychological testing, laboratory results, and fMRI assessments. She is passionate about data integrity and reproducibility across all iCARUS projects. Ms. DeVries oversees the national iCARUS consent to contact database, manages all requests for data, and assists team members with obtaining support for statistical analyses.
Omar Valentin, MPH is a project manager who is responsible for implementing the PARTI randomized controlled trial with sexual minority men who use stimulants. He also oversees key aspects of multiple iCARUS projects including design of recruitment campaigns, support for database management in Redcap, and storage of biospecimens. Mr. Valentin’s research interests include assessment of sexual behavior and HIV stigma.
Michael Viamonte, MPH, is a project manager who is responsible for implementing the MyTPill project where he oversees recruitment, retention, and implementation of electronic adherence monitoring.