Lisa Butler, PhD, MPH, PhD

Associate Research Professor

InCHIP

Research Overview

Dr. Butler is Associate Research Professor at the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention and Policy (InCHIP) at the University of Connecticut. She also holds affiliate positions as Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and as Research Associate at Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute. Prior to joining the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention and Policy at the University of Connecticut in 2013, she was Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Associate Scientific Researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Butler has doctoral training in Education (PhD, UCLA, 2000) and Epidemiology (PhD, UC Berkeley, 2009). She has methodologic expertise in the following: the design, implementation and analyses of randomized controlled trials; participatory and human centered design; design and evaluation of mobile health technology and clinical decision support tools; and visual storytelling methods, including PhotoVoice, digital storytelling and participatory documentary video. Her research experience includes: the development of training programs for biomedical health providers, traditional healers and lay health workers, as well as in the development and evaluation of multi-component interventions targeting low-literacy populations. She also has experience in training to build capacity and leadership in research on HIV prevention and treatment as well as early detection of cervical cancer and HIV-associated malignancies.

For over two decades, Dr. Butler has worked in diverse settings in sub-Saharan Africa with the goal of developing scalable and sustainable interventions to improve health and mental health outcomes, particularly amongst pediatric and adult populations who are vulnerable to or living with HIV. In response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, she now also leads studies pertaining to COVID-19, including the effects of COVID-19 mitigation strategies on children, adolescents and families in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy amongst diverse populations in North America, including indigenous American populations in the United States.

Education

A.B. 1992 Psychology, Smith College
M.A. 1998 Education/Psychological Studies in Human Development, U California, Los Angeles
Ph.D. 2000 Education/Psychological Studies in Human Development, U California, Los Angeles
M.P.H. 2002 Epidemiology and Biostatistics & Health and Social Behavior, U California Berkeley
Ph.D. 2009 Epidemiology, U California Berkeley
Post-doctoral training (2002-2005), Traineeship in AIDS Prevention Studies (TAPS), U California San Francisco

Recent/Selected Publications

NCBI Bibliography