Third Coast Center for AIDS Research would like to congratulate Celeste Watkins-Hayes, professor of sociology and African American studies, who has been named an associate vice president for research at Northwestern University. Starting the role on January 1, Watkins-Hayes is thrilled and honored for the new position.

Earning her PhD from Harvard in 2003, Watkins-Hayes became an assistant professor at Northwestern University. She then served as chair of the Department of African American Studies from 2011- 2013, then became a fellow at the Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research and was recently appointed to the board of directors at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Watkins-Hayes is a principal investigator of The Health, Hardship and Renew Study which explores the economic and social survival strategies of women living with HIV/AIDS in the Chicago area. She has also published numerous articles about urban poverty, social policy, HIV/AIDS, non-profit and government organizations, and race, class, and gender. To capitalize on this, she will also be a part of the Third Coast CFAR Seminar series in the spring of 2018.