Andrea Norcini Pala, PhD, MS

Dr. Norcini Pala holds a master's degree in clinical, social, and experimental developmental psychology from the University of Parma, Italy, with a focus on psychometric and internet-based research methods. Dr. Norcini Pala obtained his PhD in Clinical Health Psychology, concentrating on the biopsychosocial factors affecting HIV infection progression, from Milano, Italy. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Columbia University, where he expanded his research to intersectional stigma and mental and physical health outcomes among women living with HIV and African American men who have sex with men and live with HIV. In his subsequent appointments at Columbia University, he continued to develop and apply skills in advanced psychometric and research methods, including Multidimensional Latent Class/Transition Item Response Theory, Network Analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, and Bayesian methods applied to pilot RCTs. Additionally, he has expertise in qualitative methods, which he is currently applying to design a technology-based intervention for African American men living with HIV who have sex with men in order to address intersectional stigma and improve adherence to HIV antiretroviral therapy. More recently, Dr. Norcini Pala has begun work on AI models to apply in clinical, research, and teaching settings.