CFAR – Wide Webinar Series

Brian Mustanski, PhD is Northwestern University Associate Vice President for Social and Behavioral Research, Professor of Medical Social Sciences (Division of Implementation Science), Director of the Impact Institute and the NIH-funded Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), and Co-Director of the HIV Implementation Science Coordination Initiative (ISCI). He conducts translational research on the syndemic of HIV, substance use, mental health, and violence among young gay and bisexual men, including large implementation research trials of digital health solutions. He has been a Principal Investigator of over $100 million in federal and foundation grants and has published over 425 journal articles; according to Clarivate his paper’s citations make him one of the most highly cited researchers globally. Dr. Mustanski is a frequent advisor to federal and local agencies, including being appointed to the Advisory Committee of the Director of NIH. 

Nanette Benbow is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is co-Director of the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research’s Behavioral, Social, and Implementation Science Core, co-PI of the NIH administrative supplement “Implementation Science Coordination Initiative (ISCI)”, and co-PI of the NIH R24 “Sociostructural Implementation Science Coordination Initiative” which provide support and data coordination of NIH-funded grants. Her research focuses on implementation research in public health department and HIV service organization settings, and implementation research training for community partners. Prior to Northwestern she was Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health’s STI/HIV Services Bureau and Director of HIV/STI Surveillance, Epidemiology and Research for 21 years.

Dennis H. Li, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science at Northwestern University and Director of the ACCELERATE Research Program in the Impact Institute. He is also Co-Director of the national HIV Implementation Science Coordination Initiative (ISCI). Dr. Li’s research focuses on public health approaches to improving the delivery of HIV treatment and prevention interventions to end the HIV epidemic in the US. He has been Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on nearly 20 NIH-funded projects in this area, including an ongoing R01 that is facilitating and studying the implementation of low-barrier HIV care clinics across the Chicagoland area. As part of ISCI, he helps coordinate and support researchers’ and practitioners’ use of shared implementation science methods to contribute to generalizable HIV implementation knowledge.