Renee Heffron, PhD, MPH

Renee Heffron is an HIV prevention researcher with doctoral training in clinical epidemiology and an expanded methodological toolkit that incorporates implementation science, behavioral science, and qualitative research. As a Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama Birmingham in the US, she leads numerous research projects that address consequential questions about HIV prevention and optimizing delivery of prevention tools with close collaborations in Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa. In her role as Director for the Center for AIDS Research, Dr. Heffron is focused on understanding gaps in delivery of HIV prevention and treatment and engaging our research community to identify novel strategies and interventions to fill them. For all of her research projects, she has assembled multi-disciplinary, multi-national, and highly collaborative teams to effectively conduct the work and frequently includes trainees as part of the team. In her tenure in academia, she has worked with >35 trainees and developed a purposeful mentoring style that cultivates each mentee’s science identity through open dialogue grounded in scientific exploration and by establishing a comfortable environment for trainees to engage in discussion about their career goals and scientific pursuits.