Dr. Heffron is a member of the faculty of Global Health and Epidemiology within the International Clinical Research Center at the University of Washington. Her research, teaching, and mentoring focuses on advancing the field of HIV prevention and the intersection with reproductive health. Recently, she has been particularly focused on antiretroviral-based HIV prevention interventions – ART and PrEP - and utilizing a variety of methods from the fields of clinical epidemiology and implementation science to study their effectiveness and delivery. For this work, she collaborates extensively with clinical research teams in Kenya and Uganda. She is also very engaged in global and local research to understand the place for HIV prevention among people affected by HIV who desire children and how pregnancy can be an opportunity to promote HIV prevention. Additionally, she is involved in multiple studies of hormonal contraceptives and their effect on HIV acquisition risk, including a large study of multiple potential biologic mechanisms that may lie at the interface of contraception and HIV risk. Her methodologic toolkit ranges from traditional clinical epidemiology to techniques in causal inference as well as qualitative research and the design of mHealth tools.

Projects

• Safer Conception Intervention for Partners 
• Partners Demonstration Project 
• ECHO Trial and Ancillary study of biological mechanisms at the interface of contraception and HIV risk 
• Uganda Partners PrEP Program 
• Kampala Women's Bone Study 
• POWER

Research Interests

• HIV prevention
• PrEP
• ART
• HIV and pregnancy
• HIV and hormonal contraception

Teaching Interests

Teaches EPI 549 "HIV/STI Prevention Research Methods" in Spring quarter. This is a multi-disciplinary seminar for graduate and advanced undergraduate students to explore landmark studies and cutting edge studies to advance HIV and STI prevention tools.

Publications

• PubMed