Dr. Michèle Jean-Gilles’ clinical and research interests include primary and secondary prevention of HIV, the reduction of other health disparities affecting underserved populations, and cross-cultural psychology. She has expertise in conducting group and family interventions for HIV/AIDS infected and affected individuals and has published in this area. She also specializes in family psychology – with an emphasis on the acculturation process in Haitian American families and biculturalism in second-generation individuals.
Since the 1990s, Dr. Jean-Gilles has conducted HIV intervention research in the U.S. and internationally, with a variety of populations that include minority men and women, adolescents, alcohol and drug users, female prisoners, men who have sex with men and other vulnerable populations in countries including Haiti, Trinidad, and South Africa. Specifically, her work has focused on translation – the transfer of evidence-based findings into public health practice and meaningful health outcomes for new populations. Dr. Jean-Gilles and her colleagues utilize and test theories of behavioral change in the adapted interventions and have shown that risk reduction outcomes can be significantly enhanced in diverse target populations.
Dr. Jean-Gilles is currently an investigator on several National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded studies designed to evaluate and treat depression, reduce alcohol abuse and improve medication adherence among HIV+ adolescents and adults in South Florida and the Caribbean. She served as a Health Disparities Scholar for the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities and is a licensed psychologist with a specialty in pediatric psychology and post-doctoral training in cognitive behavioral therapy.