# Supplement for Kentucky BIRCWH Program: Training the Next Generation of Women's Health Scholars

> **NIH NIH K12** · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY · 2022 · $171,892

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Over the past 20 years, the BIRCWH Program at the University of Kentucky (UK) has been extremely
successful in creating a research environment to prepare early career scientists to develop the necessary skills
to become independent NIH-supported researchers who are dedicated to improving women’s health. This
administrative supplement will add a 4th BIRCWH scholar, Dr. Laneshia Conner, who is from an
underrepresented racial minority group to the UK BIRCWH program with the goal of developing her research
skills necessary to become an independent researcher engaged in intervention development for older Black
women in real world settings. HIV remains a major public health issue, with adults aged 50 and older
experiencing an increase in HIV diagnoses over the past two decades, and, 82% of HIV infections transmitted
through heterosexual contact. Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV, making up less
than 15% of the female population yet accounting for half of new HIV infections in women in the U.S. Older
Black women are often overlooked when it comes to HIV prevention services, due to ageism and stigma about
high-risk behaviors among older adults, and lack of an empirical base about older Black. Through this
administrative supplement and appointment to the BIRCWH, Dr. Conner will acquire skills to launch her
research program in three areas: intervention development, developing sustainable community programs for
older adults, and expanding methodological skills for a future RCT research. The proposed project will develop
a culturally relevant Woman 2 Woman (W2W) intervention that has been adapted to address unique gaps in
HIV prevention that target older Black women. Working with two low-income housing complexes for adults over
the age of 50, older Black women will be recruited to participate in a multisession, group-level behavioral
intervention adapted to address both physiological risk as well as low perception of risk. High unknown
serostatus suggest that HIV prevalence may be higher than reported among older adults. This project will
provide information on how to develop a culturally adapted HIV prevention intervention for older Black women
and provide data on the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention in addition to the measuring behavioral
and knowledge outcomes. Implementation and assessment procedures and protocols will inform a subsequent
full-scale R01 randomized clinical trial. The overall objective of this innovative project is to develop and test the
feasibility, acceptability, usability, and preliminary efficacy of Woman to Woman (W2W), an HIV intervention for
older Black women using a mixed methods approach. Specific aims are: (1) Adapt the group-level intervention
(W2W) focused on reducing HIV risk and increasing decision making skills in older Black women to include
reproductive health histories in exploring the impact on sexual decision making and risk behaviors, and (2)
Conduct a pilot study...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10682952
- **Project number:** 3K12DA035150-11S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
- **Principal Investigator:** Thomas E Curry
- **Activity code:** K12 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $171,892
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10682952

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10682952, Supplement for Kentucky BIRCWH Program: Training the Next Generation of Women's Health Scholars (3K12DA035150-11S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10682952. Licensed CC0.

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