Faculty & Staff

Gail Wyatt, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Gail E. Wyatt, a Clinical Psychologist, is a board certified Sex Therapist and Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior at UCLA. She directs the Center for Culture, Trauma and Mental Health Disparities and the Sexual Health Programs. Dr. Wyatt has published well over 250 publications, written six books and has provided Congressional testimony 10 times. “Stolen Women: Reclaiming our Sexuality, Taking Back our Lives” by Wiley and Sons, is a best-seller that details the effects of slavery and oppression on African American women today. Dr. Wyatt guest edited the May, 2017 issue of Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Policy and Planning, including research conducted by first authored South Africans of color. She and her team just completed an implementation study of the culturally congruent, CDC endorsed Eban Intervention for HIV sero discordant couples. The intervention has been successfully adapted for South African couples. She and Dr. Harolyn Belcher co-edited a special issue on mentoring students of diverse backgrounds in the 2019 issue of the Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Dr. Wyatt and her team also have one NIDA funded domestic and two NIH training grants that include implementation science. Her multidisciplinary team is currently using the UCLA Life Adversities Screener to implement ‘’Healing our Hearts, Minds and Bodies’, funded by NHLBI to reduce cardiovascular and trauma risks for HIV positive people of color. Other projects include a Gilead Science funded intervention for HIV negative women of color and a Cal Wellness Foundation funded a women centered intervention to reduce HIV, STI and reproductive health risks for women of color in Los Angeles County. In 2016, she received the Chancellor’s Award for Diversity and Inclusion. In 2017, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Psychological Association for her work on the effects of trauma on mental health. In 2019 she was made an Honorary Professor at the University of Capetown, South Africa for research and mentoring and she guest edited a special issue on African American women and HIV, in Ethnicity and Disease in 2020. She has been married to Dr. Lewis Wyatt for 55 years, has a son, two granddaughters and a daughter who is an angel.

Norweeta Milburn, Ph.D.

Co-Investigator

Norweeta G. Milburn, Ph.D. is a Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA Semel Institute Center for Community Health. She received her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Prior to coming to UCLA, she was an Associate Professor of Psychology at Hofstra University in New York and Assistant Director of the Psy.D. Program in School/Community Psychology. Her research interests include homelessness, substance abuse, family interventions and mental health.

She has been a principal investigator of National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) research on homeless adults and a co-principal investigator of U.S. Department of Education research on coping and adaptation in older African Americans, and was a co-principal investigator of a National Institute of Mental Health investigation of anxiety and depression in older African Americans. As a principal investigator of National Institute of Mental Health and NIDA studies of homeless and African American youth, she has examined paths into and out of homelessness, and risk for HIV among homeless youth in the U.S. and Australia; is implementing a behavioral intervention for homeless adolescents at risk for HIV and their families; and testing recruitment strategies for behavioral interventions.

Alison Hamilton, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Chief Officer of Implementation and Policy at the VA Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation & Policy at the Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, and a Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. She received her Ph.D. in medical and psychological anthropology from UCLA in 2002, and her M.P.H. in Community Health Sciences from UCLA in 2009. Dr. Hamilton’s research portfolio focuses on improving health services for vulnerable populations by understanding people’s lived experiences and implementing evidence-based and evidence-informed practices in contextually and theoretically informed ways. She is currently PI of five major VA- and NIH-funded implementation and health services research initiatives. She serves as an Associate Editor for Implementation Science Communications, and on the Editorial Boards of Implementation Science, Women’s Health Issues, and Implementation Research and Practice.

Professor Kleintjes worked in the Western Cape Province’s Department of Health as a clinical psychologist and then as a programme manager for mental health between 1990 and 2004. From 2004 to 2006, she worked as a research manager in mental health and substance abuse at the Human Sciences Research Council, after which she joined the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at University of Cape Town as a researcher in mental health policy development (2006-2010) and convener of the Postgraduate Diploma in Addictions Care (2011).

She returned to the Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital in Cape Town, remaining jointly appointed to the Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health at the University of Cape Town as a Senior Lecturer, then Associate Professor, and co-head of the Division of Psychotherapy (2012-2018). In March 2018, she was appointed to the Vera Grover Chair and Professor of Intellectual Disability in the Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health at UCT.

Her research interests include recovery –oriented public mental health policy and service development for people with psychosocial disability and intellectual disability, and promotion of self-advocacy by people with psychosocial and intellectual disability.

Professor Simbayi is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) for Research (DCEO-R) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa since 1 January 2016. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Sussex in England, United Kingdom. He is a registered Research Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa's Professional Board of Psychology and also a Member of Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). He is also currently an Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. He is also a National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researcher.

During the past two decades Professor Simbayi has mostly conducted his research in the area of social aspects of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In particular, his research has focused on second-generation HIV surveillance especially using biobehavioural surveys, HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), determinants of HIV infection (such as poverty, alcohol and drug use, gender-based violence, sex in the presence of blood, multiple sexual partnerships, and male circumcision), and theory-based HIV social and behavioural risk reduction interventions including positive prevention which targets people living with HIV/AIDS who are aware of their status. He has published 138 scientific articles in both local and international peer-reviewed academic journals, 26 research reports, 15 abstracts, and 12 book chapters. He co-edited a book entitled HIV/AIDS in South Africa 25 Years on: Psychosocial Perspectives which was published by Springer of New York in 2009. He has also presented more than 300 papers and posters at both local and international conferences.

Professor Mashudu Davhana-Maselesele was born at Balanganani village at Ha-Davhana being the third born child of the late Vhamusanda Vho DMK Davhana and Mrs Nyambeni Rhodah Davhana (nee‘ Nengovhela). She trained as a nurse and midwife at the then Venda Nursing College and served as a Professional nurse at Donald Fraser hospital. She obtained BA(Cur) Nursing Education and Community Health Nursing Science; Honours BA(Cur) in Nursing Education and Masters in Nursing Education all at UNISA. She completed her Doctoral degree in Programme Development at the University of Johannesburg. She was awarded a scholarship through Fogarty Funding to pursue her Postdoctoral studies at the University of California (Los Angeles) USA in collaboration with University of Limpopo. Her PostDoctoral studies focused on trauma research with special emphasis on Gender Based Violence. She also did Postgraduate Diploma in International Research Ethics in Southern Africa (IRENSA) at UCT.