Susan Cassels’ work spans many disciplines, including demography, epidemiology, and geography. Her research interests are in the areas of population health, migration, epidemic modeling, HIV/AIDS, and sexual networks. Currently, her research is focused on migration and residential mobility and its effects on sexual risk behavior, sexual network structure and HIV transmission. She has ongoing projects among heterosexuals in Ghana and among men who have sex with men in Seattle, Washington. Cassels’ and her colleagues have published a number of mathematical models that examine unexpected consequences of HIV prevention interventions. Cassels’ research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Grants, Awards and Distinctions:

Making space for HIV prevention: substance use among Latinx MSM in LA hotspots
NIH/NIDA 3R21 DA049643-02S1. PI. 7/2021 – 6/2023 (NCE). $148,692

Exploring Social and Structural Determinants of HIV Risk Among Latinx Immigrant MSM UCSB Migration Initiative. Cassels, S. and Cerezo, A. (Multiple PI). $9,848

Activity spaces for HIV risk and prevention among diverse men who have sex with men in Los Angeles NIH/NIDA R21 DA049643. 7/2020 – 6/2022. $402,151. PI.

 A data-driven approach to modeling the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions in disease progression dynamics at varying geographic granularities, UCSB VCR Seed Grant Collaborative Project. $50,297. Co-PI

The Migration & Prevention Cluster: Sexual Health among LGBTQ+ Communities, UCSB Chicano Studies Institute Research Cluster grant. $1,850. Multiple PI.

Center for AIDS Research. 2013-2018. NIH/NIAID P30 AI27757. Co-investigator; Role:  Core faculty in Sociobehavioral and Prevention Research Group

UCSB. 2016-2017. Spatial models of human migration, environment, and infectious disease transmission: The case of Zika virus disease Hellman Family Faculty Fellows Program, Cassels, S (PI), $20,000.

PIMSA Research Award. 2015-2016: Mexican migrant men who have sex with men, sexual networks, and prevention hotspots in San Bernardino County. Programa de Investigacion en Migration Y Salud Cassels, S. & Magis-Rodriguez, C. (Multiple PI), 2017 – 2019. $30,000.

Regents’ Junior Faculty Fellowship (Internal UCSB). 2015-2016. Immigration, residential mobility, and HIV risk among minority men who have sex with men. Cassels, S. (PI), Percent effort: 1 summer month, $7,500.

NIH/NICHD R21 HD080523. 2015-2017. Mathematical models to inform effective home-use HIV testing strategies for MSM. Cassels, S. (PI). $434,851.UW Center for AIDS Research (P30 AI27757)

New Investigator Award. 2013-2015. “HIV and residential mobility among men who have sex with men over the lifecourse” Principle Investigator. $108,805.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 2013-2014. “Improving the Interoperability of Data and Models for Surveillance and Intervention Monitoring.” Co-investigator.