Wendee Wechsberg

Wendee Wechsberg, PhD, MS, is the Director of the RTI Global Gender Center and the Director of the Substance Use, Gender, and Applied Research program.

She has been an applied gender- and community-based NIH researcher since 1994, and has more than 20 years of clinical experience. She has also directed outpatient drug-free, methadone, and residential substance use treatment programs. Dr. Wechsberg has devoted her career to applied gender research, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, to develop and test the efficacy of HIV prevention interventions among different populations of people who use substances in the US, South Africa, and other countries. She has served as principal investigator/project director on studies with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Dr. Wechsberg also serves as a consultant and advisor for various national studies and international studies. She has over 200 publications in the areas of gender, ethnicity, outreach, HIV risk, adolescents, couples, and women. As the founding director of the RTI Global Gender Center, Dr. Wechsberg has worked to create an environment of collaboration to address gender inequality and enhance RTI’s vision to address the world’s most critical problems with science-based solutions in pursuit of a better future with a gender lens. Dr. Wechsberg was selected as a Forbes’ Women 50 Over 50 Impact Honoree in 2022.