Tamara Taggart, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers)
Biography
Tamara Taggart, Ph.D., M.P.H., serves as the inaugural Perry N. Halkitis Endowed Chair for Advancing LGBTQ+ Public Health. She is also an associate professor in the Department of Urban-Global Public Health.
Dr. Taggart conducts socioepidemiologic studies to examine the social-structural (e.g., structural racism, intersectional stigma, and neighborhoods) and cultural identity factors that influence health behaviors, and then uses CBPR approaches to develop and implement interventions to improve HIV-related outcomes and reduce substance use/abuse among racial/ethnic minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescents and emerging adults. Her current work focuses on three areas: (1) Applying a community engaged framework to examine systems level factors associated with HIV prevention and treatment; (2) Utilizing activity space assessments and biopsychosocial models of stress to examine the mechanisms connecting discriminatory neighborhood environments and HIV-related behaviors; and (3) Investigating the role of religion, spirituality, and religious institutions on HIV syndemics. Integrating techniques, theories, and concepts from epidemiology, psychology, and sociology, the ultimate goal of Dr. Taggart's program of research is to reduce health disparities and improve the health of historically excluded communities. Dr. Taggart completed her AB at Dartmouth College, MPH at Columbia University, PhD at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University in the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS. She is originally from Cincinnati, OH.
Research Interests
Dr. Taggart's current projects investigate the ways in which social-structural and cultural identity factors influence health behaviors among racial/ethnic minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals. She has served as a PI/MPI or Co-I on multiple NIH, CDC, foundation, and other internal and external funded studies including, for example:
- A Community Driven Modeling Approach for Identifying Community & Policy-level Interventions to Address the Impact of Structural Racism and Discrimination on Adolescent Substance Use and Mental Health (R01MD019763)
- Measuring the Impact of Structural Racism and Discrimination During Adolescence on Substance Use, Psychological Distress, and Criminal Justice Outcomes in Adulthood (R01DA056264)
- Multilevel Strategies to Understand and Modify the Role of Structural and Environmental Context on HIV Inequities for Sexual and Gender Minorities of Color (UG3/UH3AI169655)
- Leveraging Extensive Social Determinants Data and Spatial Data Science to Reduce HIV Incidence across the United States Ending the HIV Epidemic Counties (R01MH135807)
- Addressing Intersectional and Social-Structural Barriers to Ending the HIV Epidemic in Black Sexual Minority Men and Black Heterosexual Women (P30AI117970, administrative supplement)
- Developing and Validating New Measures of Multilevel Intersectional Stigma to Improve the HIV Prevention
- Continuum for Young Black Gay Bisexual and Other Men who Have Sex with Men in the South (R21MH121313)
- Faith, Spirituality, and ART Adherence Among Black Women Living with HIV (P30AI117970, pilot award)
- Advancing Black Women’s Health: Investigating the Biological Embodiment of Intersectional Discrimination (no number, GWU Cross Disciplinary Research Award)
- Using Mixed-Methods and Participatory Approaches to Examine Contextual Stressors and Adolescent and Emerging Adult Well-Being (no number, HopeLab Foundation)