Dr. Wei-Ti Chen awarded prestigious endowed chair

Wei-Ti Chen, RN, CNM, PhD, FAAN, a professor in the UCLA School of Nursing, has been awarded the Lulu Wolf Hassenplug Endowed Chair in Nursing. 

Named after School of Nursing founding Dean Lulu Hassenplug, this endowment provides Dr. Chen with the necessary resources to continue her impactful work advancing nursing and global health. 

Dr. Chen has been a researcher for more than two-decades and has more than 100 publications to her name. Her current research focuses on stigma reduction for HIV-positive individuals globally, including Thailand, Myanmar, China, Taiwan, as well as New York and California domestically. She also studies the impacts of stigma in adults with Tourette syndrome. 

Much of her early research work focused on immigrant health and breast and cervical cancer prevention, and antiretroviral therapy adherence in people living with HIV. Later, she moved to how parents disclose HIV serostatus to their children. However, after a series of studies, Chen says she repeatedly saw stigma come up as a primary barrier preventing people living with HIV from receiving care and social support. She hopes that by learning more about the factors associated with stigma that we can break down these barriers and better assist those dealing with life-threatening illnesses in clinical settings domestically and globally.

In 2024, Dr. Chen was awarded a NIH-FIC Fogarty International Center supplement grant. This project holds great promise in addressing stigma and improving health outcomes for Thai transgender women with HIV, with potential to impact many communities not only in Southeast East Asia but worldwide.