Spotlight - Michele Peake Andrasik

The Sociobehavioral and Prevention Research Core is delighted to welcome Dr. Michele Peake Andrasik as our newest Core Faculty member. Dr. Andrasik’s primary focus is on Community Outreach, but she also supports SPRC activities in the area of Behavioral Research.

Dr. Andrasik is a clinical health psychologist and an Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. She brings with her a passion for research and a commitment to working with communities impacted by HIV/AIDS, in particular, communities of color and African American women. Her research interests include sexual risk taking, identifying and reducing barriers to HIV prevention, HIV/AIDS medication adherence, and alcohol and substance use.

Dr. Andrasik received her PhD in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Miami in 2006, where her dissertation focused on Assessing the Efficacy of a Cognitive-Behavioral Stress Management Intervention for African American HIV+ and HPV+ women. She has also has Masters degrees in Health Education and Psychological Counseling (Columbia University).

Dr. Andrasik is highly committed to developing collaborative relationships between researchers and community members and brings to the SPRC extensive expertise working with communities and community organizations, both as a researcher and as a service provider herself. Prior to her graduate training, Dr. Andrasik was the Program Director for Project TEACH (Treatment Education and Access Center of Harlem) and the Director of AIDS Services for a community-based HIV/AIDS service organization with offices in Brooklyn and Manhattan. She has also served on several community boards and committees in New York, Miami, and Seattle —including the Seattle Black Leadership Council on HIV/AIDS (BLC).

With the departure of Ann Kurth, Dr. Andrasik is providing leadership for the CFAS/CFAR Community Action Board HIV Disparities Working Group and their community-based participatory research project, “Reducing HIV Disparities: Sexual Concurrency Communication for HIV Prevention among African-American and African-Born Populations” (funded by NIH, August 2008). The goal of this project is to develop new prevention messages for the African American and African-born communities in Seattle and King County using the scientific research on sexual networks and concurrency. In addition to her work at the University of Washington, she is also the Co-Chair of the Seattle Black Leadership Council on HIV/AIDS.

Other current research projects include a research supplement with Dr. William George on Promoting Diversity in Health-Related Research. This research study focuses on sexual risk taking, victimization, and alcohol use among African American women.

Dr. Michele Andrasik, UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, mpeake@u.washington.edu