Christina S. Meade, PhD is Associate Professor (tenured) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, with a secondary appointment in Psychology & Neuroscience. Dr. Meade received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Yale University in 2006 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in drug abuse and brain imaging at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School in 2008. A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Meade has extensive patient-oriented behavioral science research experience related to HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, and mental illness, with over 100 peer-reviewed publications in this area.
The overarching goal of Dr. Meade’s research program is to improve neurobehavioral functioning among drug users living with or at high risk for HIV infection. Her research team integrates multimodal neuroimaging, behavioral, biological, and clinical methods, with the goal of translating results to novel treatment approaches. She has served as PI on multiple externally funded studies on the neurobehavioral effects of cocaine and other drugs of abuse. The results of her studies underscore the complex effects that recreational drug use can have on brain activation during complex cognitive tasks and on HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment. Building upon this work, her team is now examining the role of neuroinflammation in the link between drug abuse and HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment, as well as longitudinal effects on the structural and functional connectome. Dr. Meade’s research has also focused on risk behaviors among active drug users, including the evaluation of HIV prevention approaches for this population.
Dr. Meade also serves as Associate Director of the Social & Behavioral Sciences Core of the Duke Center for AIDS Research.
Dr. Meade enjoys mentoring highly motivated individuals at all levels of training who are interested in the intersection of drug addiction and HIV/AIDS. Trainees must be willing to make a commitment of at least 1 year and to work as part of a highly collaborative research team.