PRA Board Chair, Lisa Razzano Receives Research Award

This past fall, PRA Board of Directors Chair Lisa Razzano, PhD, CPRP, was selected as a recipient of the 2012 Research Award from the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group in Chicago. The award recognizes Lisa for her body of work that far transcends traditional research and informs policy, advocacy, community health, behavioral health, and medicine. Lisa accepted the award on October 11, 2012 at a Chicago event. Lisa joins a group of distinguished awardees, including Dr. Carl Bell and Dr. Mardge Cohen.

As a researcher, Lisa‘s work is cross-disciplinary, community based, and bears a strong advocacy and policy component. While mental health and rehabilitation services are recognized as fundamental to the HIV continuum of care, this was not always the case. Lisa and her research team began focusing their efforts on meeting the need for these types of services over twenty years ago – at a time when support for development of HIV-specific psychological and rehabilitation services was scant, both within the HIV community and among state and federal funding agencies. Over her career, Lisa has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator for studies totaling over eighteen million dollars, including two federally-funded studies designed to develop a stand-alone medication adherence program for people with HIV/AIDS centered on peer support and culturally-relevant health beliefs.

Currently, her funded research focuses on translation and evaluation of an evidence-based practice (EBP) service delivery model called Supported Employment (SE), for use with individuals who are HIV-positive. This project, funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), is the first of its kind to adapt SE for use by people living with HIV/AIDS. This work, in addition to other studies directed by Lisa, addresses critical needs for health, employment, and emotional well-being by focusing on the strengths of individuals who are members of disenfranchised groups, and has garnered attention at both local and national levels. In the words of those who have collaborated with her: “Her projects give people with HIV and other health conditions a sense of hope that they have a place in the world that is  welcomed, credible, and valued.”

PRA is proud of Lisa not only for this outstanding recognition, but for all of the work she does to make a difference in the lives of people with HIV/AIDS and those in mental health recovery, and for the time she devotes to furthering PRA’s mission in her Board Chair position on the PRA Board of Directors.