Santa Maria appointed to national AIDS council

Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston Dean Diane Santa Maria, DrPH, MSN, ACRN, PHNA-BC, FAAN, has been named to the Office of AIDS Research (OAR) Advisory Council in recognition of her extensive research of HIV and youth experiencing homelessness.

Santa Maria was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and will serve through September 2026. The council advises the director of the OAR, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Its voting members represent leading universities and research institutions across the nation, and it is supported by directors of federal agencies and organizations who serve as ex-officio members.

“We are justifiably proud of Dr. Santa Maria’s state-of-the-art contributions to solving the continuing HIV/AIDS crisis in young adults, and this appointment by the OAR recognizes her standing in the field and the impact of research and intervention by Cizik School of Nursing faculty,” said Kevin A. Morano, PhD, senior vice president for academic and faculty affairs at UTHealth Houston.

Santa Maria is no stranger to the NIH. She has received more than $7 million in NIH funding since 2019 for studies related to youth experiencing homelessness and HIV and substance use prevention.

She currently holds a $2.9 million, four-year R01 grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) for her study, “Assessing the use of MY-RIDE, a Just-in-Time Adaptive Intervention, to Improve HIV Prevention and Substance Use in Youth Experiencing Homelessness.” The study is testing a mobile health intervention that delivers personalized messaging and behavior feedback based on ecological momentary assessments to reduce stress, help youth manage substance use urge, and navigate risky sexual situations. Her proposal scored in the first percentile of those submitted to the NINR.

Santa Maria also holds leadership positions with the Texas Development Center for AIDS Research (TX D-CFAR), which is led Baylor College of Medicine in collaboration with Cizik School of Nursing and McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston as well as the Texas Biomedical Research Institution in San Antonio. She serves as co-director of the TX D-CFAR, director of its Developmental Core, and co-director of its Mentoring Program and Substance Use Scientific Working Group.

“This appointment is a testament to the momentum building among Houston-based scientists and Cizik School of Nursing faculty toward finding ways to treat HIV, prevent its spread, and support people living with it,” Santa Maria said. “I am honored to serve on the OAR Advisory Council alongside esteemed colleagues who share our vision of ending HIV in the U.S. and across the globe.”

A professor in the Department of Research at Cizik School of Nursing, Santa Maria holds the Jane and Robert Cizik Distinguished Chair and the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair in Nursing Education Leadership. She became the school’s fifth dean in September 2020 after serving in an interim capacity for two years.

Santa Maria earned her Doctor of Public Health from the School of Public Health at UTHealth Houston, her Master of Nursing Science in community/public health nursing from the Case Western Reserve School of Nursing in Cleveland, Ohio, and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from The Ohio State University in Columbus.