Advancing health
locally, nationally and globally

Adolescent Vaccination Project: Multi-Component Interventions for Patients and Providers to Increase HPV Vaccination in a Network of Pediatric Clinics
The Adolescent Vaccination Project is a collaboration between the UTHealth School of Public Health, Baylor College of Medicine, and Texas Children's Pediatrics (TCP). The primary goal of this initiative is to increase initiation and completion of HPV vaccination among male and female patients at TCP, a network of over 50 clinics in the greater Houston area.
Brief Interventions to Create Smoke-Free Home Policies in Low-Income Households
To increase protection of healthy children and non-smoking adults from secondhand smoke, exposure, we developed the Smoke-Free Homes Program: Some Things are Better Outside (SFHs). This is a minimally intensive program with three mailings and a single counseling telephone call, implemented in partnership with 2-1-1 social services information and referral (I&R) systems.
Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, Community Engagement Component
This project focuses on the Community Engagement component of the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS)
Evaluation of DSHS Re-Entry Project
The purpose of this project is to evaluate the impact of Certified Peer Support (CPS) specialists to decrease recidivism, promote community tenure and encourage recovery of people in jail across each of the three project sites (Tarrant county, Harris County, and the Rio Grande Valley).
Healthy Fit
This project connect residents in predominantly low income Hispanic communities to health resources.
Houston Men’s Project
In-depth interviews with polysubstance-using men who have sex with men in the Houston area.
Hurricane Harvey Oral History Project
The goal of the Hurricane Harvey Oral History Project is to preserve the history of people's experiences and responses to Harvey, incorporating perspectives from multiple points of view.
Increasing Breast, Cervical, and Colon Cancer Screening and Increasing HPV Vaccination Among the Underserved: A Collaboration with the United Way's 2-1-1 Program
UTHealth collaborated with three 2-1-1 call centers in the Houston area, the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the El Paso area to provide referrals, navigation, and, in some cases, financial assistance to 2-1-1 callers needing breast cancer screening, Pap tests, colorectal cancer screening, HPV vaccination, or smoking cessation. A randomized controlled trial showed that navigation was effective in increasing completion of these behaviors compared to referrals only.
Me and You: Building Healthy Relationships
Some middle school programs have been shown to elicit positive behavioral change related to teen dating violence; however, most school-based middle school programs have been developed for and/or evaluated for older, predominantly white adolescents. Me & You is among one of the first programs to have been developed and shown to be effective in reducing dating violence perpetration for ethnic minority middle school youth and to include components from multiple levels of the socio-ecological model.
Mobilizing Community Partnerships for Effective Sex Education in Middle School
While significant progress has been made in the development of effective programs to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections among youth, there has been little progress made in their widespread dissemination to schools. Using community-based participatory research methods, researchers at UTHealth developed iCHAMPSS, an innovative, theory- and Web-based decision support system designed to facilitate the adoption, implementation, and maintenance of adolescent sexual health evidence-based programs in schools.
Next-generation phylodynamics-targeted partner service models for combined HIV prevention | NIH/NIAID R01AI136056
Site PI. This projects aims to guide and transform the rapidly evolving public health implementation of molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) based prevention interventions as a critical step towards HIV elimination in Chicago and Houston.
Next-generation phylodynamics-targeted partner service models for combined HIV prevention | NIH/NIDA 3R01DA039934
Site PI, subcontract through University of Chicago The goal of this project is to guide and transform the rapidly evolving public health implementation of molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) based prevention interventions as a critical step towards HIV elimination in Chicago and Houston.
Proyecto Vales+Tú: A Program to Prevent Injury Disparities Among Latino Day Laborers
Latino day laborers (LDL) experience a disproportionately high rate of on-the-job injuries and fatalities compared with other workers in the US. The aims of this study were to identify intervention priorities then to design and pilot a culturally responsive safety intervention program.
Salud en Mis Manos: A community based program to increase breast and cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination to reduce the impact of these cancers among Latinas
A community-based program focused on delivering breast and cervical cancer screening education and telephone-based coaching, to unscreened or unvaccinated Latinas who have never had or are overdue for ACS-recommended preventive breast and cervical cancer services.
Supplement for HIV intervention models for criminal justice involved substance-using Black MSM | NIH/NIDA 3R01DA039934
Multiple PI. This supplement project proposes to examine institutional and social network contributors to opioid use (including prescription opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl), opioid use disorder, and opioid-related harms among younger Black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) with involvement in the criminal justice/corrections system.
Teens Against Tobacco Use
This project is an innovative health promotion program that empowers youth to serve as both educators and healthy policy advocates.
Tobacco- and alcohol-related health disparities in mental health among Latinos

We Can Do More Houston: Disseminating Proven Strategies to Reduce Teen Pregnancy through Improved Contraception Access
We Can Do More is a multi-level community based intervention targeting health clinics, schools, youth serving organizations and faith-based institutions. The goal of WCDM is to increase the capacity of participating organizations/agencies to address teen pregnancy and contraception access with proven strategies and programs.

Be Legendary - Developing a Multi-Component Teen Pregnancy Prevention Intervention for Male Teens
A theoretically-based and youth-centered approach to reduce unplanned teen birth among male adolescents
Care Coordination for Complex Cancer Survivors in an Integrated Safety-net System
The project involves implementing care coordination strategies shown to be effective for primary care conditions among complex cancer survivors at Parkland Health & Hospital System.
Creating Healthy Actions Today (CHAT)
A smartphone-based program to promote healthy eating and physical activity among African American breast cancer survivors.
eWellness
An online program designed to improve diet and increase physical activity among breast cancer and colorectal cancer survivors.
HIV intervention models for criminal justice involved substance-using Black MSM (BARS: Building Agent-based Models for a Racialized Justice System) | NIH/NIDA 1R01DA039934
This project aims to study the effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions for criminal justice (i.e., jail and community supervision) involved younger Black men who have sex with men in HIV prevention services by developing Agent-based Network Modeling methodology. This study is conducted in three sites (Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles).
Houston Truck Stop Study
Health needs assessment of long-haul truckers and sex workers found at truck stops in the Houston area
IHSKonnect
Needs assessment of men having sex with men in the State of Maharahstra, India.
It's Your Game
It's Your Game ... Keep it Real! (IYG) is a classroom- and computer-based program for middle school youth. The curriculum is grounded in theory and was developed to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV. IYG emphasizes abstinence but also teaches students how to protect themselves from pregnancy and STDs using medically accurate information.
Methodology and Advanced Analytics Resource Center (MAARC) | NIH/NIDA U2C DA050098
Site PI (a Core Methodology Leader for Social Network Analysis). This project proposes advanced bi-directional data sharing, analytics, and modeling capacities to provide new scientific insights into interventions at the intersection of opioid use and justice contexts. The MAARC (at the University of Chicago) will support these capabilities within opioid clinical trials implemented within justice contexts, serving as one of the 12 research hubs of a U2 consortium project that comprises a national network of investigators of JCOIN (the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network).
Network Dynamics of Syphilis Coinfection within Biomedical Prevention | NIH/NIAID 1R21AI13948
This project takes biological, behavioral, and epidemiological perspectives to investigate complex syphilis-HIV transmission dynamic processes, coevolved with sex behavioral dynamic, and sexual network dynamic, and risk reduction behavioral dynamic among young Black men who have sex with men at the aim of creating effective syphilis eliminations interventions for most-at-risk population in the United States.
Next-generation phylodynamics-targeted partner service models for combined HIV prevention | NIH/NIDA 3R01DA039934
Site PI, subcontract through University of Chicago The goal of this project is to guide and transform the rapidly evolving public health implementation of molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) based prevention interventions as a critical step towards HIV elimination in Chicago and Houston.
parTy
Needs assessment of methamphetamine-using men who have sex with men in the US.
Red de Coaliciones Comunitarias de Mexico
Red de Coaliciones Comunitarias de Mexico is a network of over 20 youth substance use prevention coalitions across Mexico. The neighborhood based coalitions bring together several sectors of the community including health providers, social service agencies, religious organizations, law enforcement, government agencies, schools, and parents and youth. These diverse sectors work together to bring about environmental and policy changes that prevent youth substance use.
Spanish MINDSET: Expanding and Validating a Self-Management Tool for the Hispanic Community
The goal of this project is to develop a Spanish version of an epilepsy self-management decision-support system and test the efficacy of both the Spanish and English versions on epilepsy self-management in Hispanic patients attending four clinic sites near the Mexico border in Arizona and Texas.
Supplement for Next-generation phylodynamics-targeted partner service models for combined HIV prevention | NIH/NIAID R01AI13605
Site PI. This supplement project proposes to examine next generation responses to HIV related events in ending the epidemic contexts in Chicago and Houston.
Tell Us, Texas
SGM health needs assessment
Unidas por Vida y Salud: Increasing Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening in El Paso
The proposed prevention program Unidas por Vida y Salud (United for Life and Health) uses evidence-based strategies, including promotora-delivered educational sessions and client reminders, to increase both uptake of breast and cervical cancer screening and repeat screening among low income, uninsured or under-insured Hispanic women in El Paso.
YMAP: Young Men’s Affiliation Project of HIV Risk and Prevention Venue | NIH/NIMH 1R01MH100021
This project conducts a multisite longitudinal network study to investigate the HIV/STD risk and protective behaviors associated with social networks created by venue affiliations among young men who have sex with men (YMSM) ages 16-29 years. This study is conducted in two cities (Houston and Chicago).

CHPPR Research Projects

Current research projects are listed below. Click a project title to go its detail page.