RTI International names three new Fellows

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — RTI International has named Eric O. Johnson, Ph.D., and Ariane van der Straten, Ph.D., as RTI Senior Fellows, and William Zule, DrPH, as an RTI Fellow. 

Since its establishment in 2001, the RTI Fellow Program has provided professional opportunities for exceptionally talented RTI staff committed to science, technology, research and policy analysis. The program is designed to support RTI's mission to improve the human condition, and includes three levels: Fellow, Senior Fellow and Distinguished Fellow.

Johnson, who has been named an RTI Senior Fellow, is an expert in psychiatric and substance use disorder research and genetic epidemiology. He is director of RTI's Behavioral Health Epidemiology program and a senior research scientist who has spent more than 18 years researching and publishing articles about social and genetic epidemiology.

Johnson serves as the chair of the Behavioral Genetics and Epidemiology Study Section in the Center for Scientific Review at the National Institutes of Health, and has served on a number of other study sections and NIH panels. He has a doctorate and master's degree in sociology from Western Michigan University and a bachelor's degree in sociology and psychology from Olivet Nazarene University. Johnson also completed postdoctoral fellowships in epidemiology and genetics from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, respectively. Johnson is an author of more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles.

van der Straten director of the Women's Global Health Imperative program, has also been promoted from RTI Fellow to Senior Fellow. She is an expert in female-initiated HIV-prevention methods and its acceptability and adherence. She has directed many influential studies of female contraceptives and biomedical HIV prevention technologies, as well as adherence-related issues. Currently, van der Straten is working to develop a long-lasting, injectable, biodegradable HIV-prevention device.

In addition to her work at RTI, van der Straten is an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She has a doctorate in zoology from the University of Brussels, a master's of public health from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor's degree in molecular biology from the University of Louvain. van der Straten is the author of more than 100 book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles and publications.

Zule, a senior health analyst at RTI, is a leading expert in community-based HIV prevention research. He has studied hepatitis C virus epidemiology and prevention for more than 25 years. Currently, Zule's work focuses on implementing better syringe design in Tajikistan to reduce hepatitis C and HIV infections from syringe sharing. Many of his studies involve men who have sex with men, people who use drugs and female sex workers.

Zule also serves on the board of directors of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Association. He has published more than 65 articles, book chapters and reports about his research. Zule has a doctorate in community health practice and a master's of public health from the University of Texas and a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio.