Judith Bradford, Ph.D
Director, IWH Community Based Research

Address:  P.O. Box 843065
Office:  921 W. Franklin Street
Phone: (804) 828-8813 
Fax: (804)  828-6133   
 jbradfor@vcu.edu

Director, Community Health Research Initiative
L. Douglas Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs
Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Community Health

Dr. Bradford joined the VCU faculty in 1986 as Senior Research Associate and Director of Health and Social Policy Research in the Survey and Evaluation Research Laboratory (SERL) and served as SERL Director from 1994 - 2005. She is currently Director of the Community Health Research Initiative in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs and Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health in the VCU School of Medicine (Public Health). Dr. Bradford provides leadership for the Health Policy Concentration in the Center for Public Policy’s PhD Program in Public Policy and Administration, where she teaches health policy and chairs dissertations for health policy doctoral students.

Dr. Bradford is a specialist in community research with disadvantaged populations, applying her knowledge of research methods with hard-to-reach populations and her commitment to ensuring that scientific results are used appropriately and promptly in practice. She has worked at the national level for more than 20 years to improve the methodological soundness of sexual and gender minority research, as a research scientist and consultant to Federal and state agencies. Since 1997, she has worked as a consultant with Fenway Community Health in Boston to train staff in social science and behavioral research methods and to expand its research program in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) research. She has a particular interest in translational research and recently developed an intervention based on patient navigation that proved efficacious in a 3-year demonstration study.

As PI or Evaluation Director, Dr. Bradford provides leadership on multiple studies funded by CDC, SAMHSA, and HRSA, in the areas of HIV/AIDS, maternal child health, and substance abuse. Recent research achievements have been establishing the CDC’s National HIV Behavioral Surveillance program, as Virginia PI; completing the 3-year Virginia Transgender Research Study with VDH and a statewide advisory committee; and with The Fenway Institute (TFI), completing the HRSA-funded 5-year Special Project of National Significance to improve engagement and retention in HIV care. She has successfully initiated the Community Health Research Initiative at VCU, created a community process and foundation for transgender research at TFI, and developed a Community Research section within the VCU Institute for Women’s Health, Center for Excellence in Women’s Health.