Departmental Affiliations
Amrita Rao, PhD ’22, ScM '16, works to understand and address the HIV prevention and treatment needs of historically marginalized populations, including sexual and gender minorities and female sex workers.
Research Interests
Social epidemiology; Quasi-experimental designs; social determinants of health; HIV; PrEP; key populations; implementation science; women's health
Additional Links
Experiences & Accomplishments
Honors & Awards
2021 Marilyn Menkes Book Award, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins
2021 Leon Gordis Centennial Scholarship, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins
2020 National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellowship, National Institute of Mental Health
2019 Mary B. Meyer Memorial Fund Scholar, Department of Epidemiology Johns Hopkins
2020 Global Health Field Research Award, Center for Global Health, Johns Hopkins
2019 Inter-CFAR Implementation Science Fellow, Center for AIDS Research, Multiple Institutions
2015 Global Health Establish Field Placement Award, Center for Global Health, Johns Hopkins
2014 Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative, Awardee for Field Research
Select Publications
Select publications:
Rao, A., Lesko, C., Mhlophe, H., Rucinski, K., Mcingana, M., Pretorius, A., Mcloughlin, J., Baral, S., Beyrer, C., Hausler, H., Schwartz, S. Longitudinal patterns of initiation, persistence, and cycling on PrEP among female sex workers and adolescent girls and young women in South Africa, 2016-2021. AIDS.
Rao, A., Rucinski, K., Jarrett, B.A., Ackerman, B., Wallach, S., Marcus, J., Adamson, T., Garner, A., Santos, G.M., Beyrer, C., Howell, S., Baral, S (2021). Perceived interruptions to HIV prevention and treatment services associated with COVID-19 for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in 20 countries. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes
Rao, A., Tobin, K., Davey-Rothwell, M., & Latkin, C. A. (2017). Social desirability bias and prevalence of sexual HIV risk behaviors among people who use drugs in Baltimore, Maryland: implications for identifying individuals prone to underreporting sexual risk behaviors. AIDS Behav, 21(7), 2207-2214.
Rao, A., Schwartz, S., Sabin, K., Wheeler, T., Zhao, J., Hargreaves, J., Baral, S. on behalf of the Global.HIV Research Group (2018). HIV-related data among key populations to inform evidence-based responses: protocol of a systematic review. Systematic Reviews. 7:220.
Rao, A., Stahlman, S., Hargreaves, J., Weir, S., Edwards, J., Rice, B., Kochelani, D., Mavimbela, M., & Baral, S. (2017). Sampling key populations for HIV surveillance: results from eight cross-sectional studies using respondent-driven sampling and venue-based snowball sampling. JMIR Public Health Surveill, 3(4), e72