Donenberg Selected to Head NIH Office of AIDS Research

Dr. Geri Donenberg

Dr. Geri R. Donenberg has been selected as NIH associate director for AIDS Research and director of the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR), part of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives in NIH’s Office of the Director (OD). She will work closely with the institutes and centers to lead the advancement and coordination of HIV/AIDS research at NIH.

Donenberg brings more than 25 years of HIV/AIDS research experience with a focus on understanding the underlying mechanisms of risky sexual behavior and substance use among youth and designing specially targeted interventions to prevent HIV transmission. Her studies have addressed each stage of the HIV cascade and prioritized the inclusion of diverse HIV-affected populations. Donenberg’s research has illuminated HIV-risk mechanisms, conducting prevention and treatment efficacy and effectiveness trials and testing implementation strategies in complex low-resource settings.

Over the past 10 years, Donenberg’s research has elucidated the determinants, processes and strategies that will optimize intervention delivery and to conduct hybrid trials to improve implementation outcomes and clinical effectiveness.

A clinical psychologist, Donenberg joins NIH from the University of Illinois - Chicago (UIC) where she is a professor of medicine, psychology and epidemiology and biostatistics, and chair of scholarly activities in the Department of Medicine. She is the founding director of the Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science in Health Disparities, and director of the Healthy Youths Program at UIC.

She earned her bachelor’s in psychology and political science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2007, she was selected as a Fulbright Scholar in Cape Town, South Africa.

Donenberg has been an active NIH grant reviewer and chair for NIH study sections and has authored more than 170 publications. She has led dozens of research projects, including NIH-supported studies. She was among the first to establish the role of mental health in adolescent HIV risk-taking and to design and implement HIV prevention interventions for youth with mental health distress. Donenberg has been a mentor for 24 NIH-funded career development awards, actively working with marginalized populations, including individuals living with HIV and racial/ethnic and sexual minorities.