Emilia Lombardi

Dr. Emilia Lombardi is chair and associate professor of BW's public health and prevention science department. She has a doctorate in medical sociology and has been involved in HIV prevention research and examining health disparities among racial and ethnic, sexual and gender minorities for approximately 15 years. Lombardi’s work examines the relationship between stigma and discrimination, social networks, substance use and HIV risk behaviors. Her early work examined the influence of social network elements upon the HIV attitudes and behaviors of adolescents of color. Her later work added a focus on substance use issue as well as the influence of stigma and discrimination upon HIV-related behaviors while a post-doctoral fellow at the drug abuse research center at University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining BW, Lombardi served at University of Pittsburgh. As director of community research she worked with the Pennsylvania Community Prevention Group (CPG) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, HIV/AIDS Division as part of the Pennsylvania Prevention Project (PPP). Lombardi’s research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Williams Institutes. She was a principle investigator on a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) examining transgender men's and women's experiences and access to substance use treatment (R03 DA12909). Lombardi is involved in transgender-related research and social activism. She is currently working on a project examining the utility of various survey measures to identify transgender populations that can be used within population studies. She currently teaches community health planning, public health policy and public health assessment and evaluation.