Katherine Elkington, PhD

Member, ISHO Core
Training Co-Director, HIV Center Postdoctoral Training Program: Behavioral Sciences Training in HIV Infection
Associate Professor of Clinical Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry), Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Katherine Elkington, PhD, is a licensed NYS clinical psychologist, an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University as well as Research Scientist and the Training Director of the T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship at the HIV Center. She is also a member of the HIV Center's Intervention Science Core.

Dr. Elkington’s research has centered on understanding and documenting the intersection among sexual risk behaviors, substance use and mental illness in highly vulnerable adolescent populations. Dr. Elkington has a particular focus on youth involved in the juvenile justice system, working with this population to examine how mental health problems, substance use and sexual risk behaviors, and risk factors thereof, are interrelated and influence recidivism. She has used these data to develop interventions that prevent youth on probation from engaging in risk behavior, promote health, and facilitate linkage to services. These interventions include a family-based HIV/STI prevention program for youth on probation (Family STARS) that was developed as part of her Career Development Award (K01 MH089832; PI: Elkington). She has also published on the relationship between MI-related stigma and HIV risk behaviors among adults with SMI in both US and Brazilian samples, and among adolescents in psychiatric outpatient treatment in the US.

She has been the Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator of a large number of federally-funded research projects based in the US. Most recently these projects include:

  • Link2CARE (R01DA043122; PI: Elkington), a grant to adapt and implement a new multicomponent service delivery model (Link2CARE) that aims to a) increase HIV, STI testing and SU screening; b) reduce HIV and SU risk; and c) increase linkage to HIV, STI and SU services for justice involved youth enrolled in alternative to sentencing programs.

  • Family CONNECT (R34 DA039316; PI: Elkington), a grant to adapt and pilot test a multi-level service linkage and delivery model for youth on probation, employing use of a linkage specialist to help families navigate between probation and behavioral health systems.

  • JJ-TRIALS (Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System U01-DA036226; PI: Gail Wasserman, Ph.D), a multi-site grant to expand efforts to address substance use and HIV risk, and to promote evidenced-based programs for youth on probation

  • Boricua Youth Study: (R01 DA033173; PI: Duarte), a grant to examine the role of substance use and disorder, in addition to other key individual and contextual factors, on HIV/STI risk behaviors and infection among Latino youth in the South Bronx, NY and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

  • Predictors of Pathological Gambling Among Puerto Rican Youth (R01 HD060072; PI: Martins), using the Boricua Youth Study sample, this grant examines developmental pathways and environmental risk factors that may lead to pathological or problem gambling, and related outcomes such as sexual risk, in a high-risk sample of Puerto Rican youth/young adults in the South Bronx and Puerto Rico.