Today’s rural communities, despite their stereotypical “safe” image, are not immune from many of the problems of urban areas, such as unprotected sexual behavior, drug and alcohol abuse, and diseases such as human immunodeficiency infection, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and other sexually transmitted diseases. The spread of HIV and other STDs to rural areas of the United States is an important threat to public health. Multiple factors, such as stigma, denial and isolation, contribute to the challenge of HIV/STD prevention in rural communities.
Mission of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention
Founded in 1994, the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention (RCAP) promotes HIV/STD prevention in rural America to reduce HIV/STD prevalance. A joint project of Indiana University, University of Colorado, and the University of Kentucky, RCAP is headquartered at Indiana University. RCAP:
- provides current prevention resources to professionals and the public
- develops and evaluates educational materials and approaches to rural HIV/STD prevention
- shares strategies that might work to overcome behavioral and social barriers related to rural HIV/STD prevention
The Directors of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention (RCAP)
Faculty members from Indiana University, University of Colorado, Denver and University of Kentucky, Lexington, direct RCAP. The directors have extensive background in HIV/STD curriculum development and evaluation, prevention programming, basic and applied research, public service and patient care. Research assistants and graduate students from each university also participate in RCAP projects.
Senior Director
William L. Yarber, H.S.D., Indiana
University
Dr. Yarber is professor of applied health science, professor of gender studies,
and senior research fellow at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender,
and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington. Besides having published
numerous scientific studies in professional journals, he has authored four school
AIDS/STD curricula, including the nation's first school AIDS curriculum. His
research has focused on examining HIV/STD risk behavior, particularly among
youth and rural populations. Dr. Yarber has been the principal investigator
for several extramural awards for his research and curriculum development.
Co-Directors
Janet N. Arno, M.D., Indiana University
Dr. Arno is medical director of the Bell Flower Clinic of the Marion County
Health Department (Indianapolis, IN) and clinical associate professor in the
division of infectious diseases at the Indiana University Medical School, Indianapolis.
She specializes in infectious diseases with a research focus on STD immunology.
As a physician she has cared for AIDS patients since 1982. She has numerous
AIDS/STD publications and extramural support awards. Dr. Arno was a member of
the Cleveland AIDS Task Force where she worked with teachers in AIDS education
program development.
Richard A. Crosby, Ph.D., University
of Kentucky, Lexington
Richard A. Crosby, Ph.D., is he DDI Endowed Professor and Chair of health behavior in the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Dr. Crosby has published extensively in the area of HIV/STD risk behavior, including studies of rural populations. He has developed and tested a condom use promotion program (known as Focus on the Future) which is now classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an evidence-based intervention. He has edited and authored multiple college textbooks on health behavior theory and research methods. He is also a recipient of research awards from the National Institutes of Health to study condom effectiveness against non-viral sexually transmitted infections and to test a brief, clinic-based, HIV prevention designed for young African American males. He is also funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate barriers to HPV vaccination and develop social marketing programs to promote vaccine uptake.
Susan L. Dreisbach, Ph.D., University
of Colorado, Denver
Dr. Dreisbach is assistant professor in health and behavioral science at the
University of Colorado, Denver. Her research has focused on HIV/AIDS risk behaviors
and the context in which they occur among methamphetamine users in rural communities
and among adolescents in various settings. As a Social Science Research Council
Sexuality Fellow, Dr. Dreisbach is investigating how multiple cultures simultaneously
influence sexual behaviors and HIV/AIDS risk among Latino/a adolescents.
Mohammad R. Torabi, Ph.D., M.P.H.,
Indiana University
Dr. Torabi is Chancellors' Professor of Health Education and chair of the Department
of Applied Health Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. His research focus
has been in measurement and evaluation of school and public health education
programs and factors related to individuals' decisions in the prevention of
HIV/AIDS infection, drug abuse, cancer, and tobacco.
Research Fellows
Anne M. Bowen, PhD, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY Dr. Bowen is professor of psychology and is a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on reducing risks for acquiring and transmitting the HIV virus. She is especially interested in developing interventions for rural people at risk. She has just completed and Internet intervention for rural MSM with exciting results and is beginning a qualitative study with rural methamphetamine users in the US. She is also engaged in cross cultural work and developing interventions for commercial sex workers and rural to urban migrant men in India and urban drug users in Tanzania.
Cynthia Graham, Ph.D., is currently a Research Tutor on the University of Oxford Doctoral Course in Clinical Psychology. She obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at McGill University and previous appointments include: Director of Graduate Education at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, Clinical Professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Indiana University , and Research Psychologist at the MRC Reproductive Biology Unit in Edinburgh . Her research interests are sexual behavior, HIV/STD-related risk behavior, reproductive hormones, and gender differences in sexual behavior. She has conducted research on psychophysiological sexual response patterns; condom errors and problems; the effects of oral contraceptives on mood and sexuality in women; the relationship between the menstrual cycle and changes in mood and sexuality; menstrual synchrony; and methodological issues involved in recall data on sexual behavior.
Timothy G . Heckman, Ph.D., is an research professor of psychology at Ohio University, specializing in experimental health psychology. His recent research has focused primarily on the mental health needs of rural people living with HIV/AIDS. Dr. Heckman is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to evaluate the efficacy of a telephone-delivered, coping improvement group intervention for HIV-infected persons living in rural areas and to investigate patterns and predictors of suicidal thoughts among HIV-infected rural residents.
Bronwen Lichtenstein, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Justice and an Associate Research Scientist at the Institute for Rural Health Research at The University of Alabama. She gained her Ph.D. in sociology from The University of Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1996. Since immigrating to the United States , she has engaged in teaching, research and writing on sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS the Deep South . In particular, she has focused on women's and minority issues in relation to HIV/AIDS, and on stigma as a barrier to STI treatment and screening in the rural south. Dr. Lichtenstein has received NIH funding for studies on stigma and STIs and domestic violence and HIV risk among rural women. She is a member of the Governor of Alabama's AIDS Commission for Children, Youth and Adults and the Sociologists' AIDS Network.
Robin Milhausen is an associate professor in Human Sexuality and Family Relations in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, at the University of Guelph, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Milhausen earned her PhD at Indiana University in the Department of Applied Health Science, while working as a research assistant at the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention. Dr. Milhausen's research interests include: sexual risk-taking among rural youth, condom use errors and problems, sexual arousal and the experience of sexual problems, and gender differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors. Current research projects include: gender differences in desired partner characteristics; sexual arousal and sexual and relationship satisfaction; sexual arousal, condom use errors and problems and sexual risk-taking; scale development and validation.
Dr. Seth M. Noar is an Associate Professor and Full Member of the graduate faculty in the Department of Communication at the University of Kentucky. His research interests focus on health promotion and disease prevention from a health communication perspective, and are mostly concentrated in the area of HIV prevention and safer sexual behavior. His research articles address health behavior theories, sexual communication, safer sex messages, media campaigns and interventions, and methodological topics including meta-analysis. Dr. Noar currently works on HIV prevention projects funded by both the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His work has appeared in a wide range of journals and books in the social, behavioral, health, and communication sciences. He also recently co-edited "Communication Perspectives on HIV/AIDS for the 21st Century," published by Lawrence Erlbaum in 2008.
Stephanie A. Sanders, Ph.D., is Associate Director of The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, Professor of Gender Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. A biopsychologist by training, she has conducted research on sexual behavior patterns related to risk for sexually transmitted infections; condom use errors and problems; sexual orientation and sexual behavior; sexual arousal in women; sex/gender differences in behavior; sex hormones and behavior; the effects of prenatal exposures to drugs and hormones on behavioral, cognitive and social development; and women’s menstrual cycling. She has experience writing and conducting grants funded by NICHD, NIDA, NIMH, and private funding agencies. She is a PI for NIH award, Barriers to Correct Condom Use (R21 HD060447-01), which aims to advance understanding of, among other factors, the role of cognitive and affective processes and condom application skills in explaining problems with condom use, particularly condom-associated erection problems (CAEP), in young, heterosexual adult men.
Research Assistants
Alexandra Marshall, MPH, CPH, CHES, is a PhD student in Health Behavior and an Associate Instructor in the Department of Applied Health Science at Indiana University. For her culminating masters degree project, she conducted an analysis of HIV testing data collected from the seventy-five counties of Arkansas. Her current primary research interest for her doctoral work is adolescent sexuality in which she would particularly like to study teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and STI prevention programs and issues associated with sexual orientation and self-esteem.
April Young is a MPH student in health behavior at the University of Kentucky. Her primary interests involve the exploration of sociocultural, behavioral, and economic influences on the acceptance of new medical innovations, such as vaccines. She has applied this interest to the area of sexual health through her collaboration in domestic and international research on HPV vaccine acceptance. April is primarily interested in cervical cancer prevention in developing countries, particularly in the Philippines.
Advisory Committee
Michael R. Covone, MSW, MPH
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Anchorage, AK
Ralph DiClemente, PhD
Emory/Atlanta Center for AIDS Research
Atlanta, GA
Lynne Greabell, MAA
National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors Washington, DC
Timothy Heckman, PhD
Ohio University
Athens, OH
Lisa Kramer, BA
Idaho Division of Health
Boise, ID
Ingrid McDowell, MSCJ
National Minority AIDS Council
Washington, DC
Alan Morgan, MPA
National Rural Health Association
Washington, DC
Frank J. Oldham, Jr.
National Association of People with AIDS Silver Spring, MD
Michelle Sabori, MBA
Inter Tribal Council of America, Inc.
Phoenix, AZ
Ronald J. Weatherford, M Div
Nia's Ark, Inc.
High Point, NC
The Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention (RCAP) is based in the Department of Applied Health Science in the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at Indiana University, Bloomington. RCAP is supported, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
