Vincent Thomas Francisco, Ph.D.

Dr. Vincent Francisco is Kansas Health Foundation Professor of Community Leadership in the KU Department of Applied Behavioral Science, and Director of the Center for Community Health and Development, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre at the University of Kansas. In his work, he uses behavioral science methods to help understand and improve conditions that affect population health and health equity. He publishes widely in the areas of health promotion, capacity building, and community-based research and intervention. Dr. Francisco is a co-developer of the Community Tool Box, a widely-used Internet-based resource for promoting community health and development.

He brings expertise and experience to implementing community–based research, especially for prevention of HIV and chronic disease. He has years of experience mentoring undergraduate and graduate researchers and practitioners with community-based organizations throughout the United States and abroad. He has experience designing and implementing community-based and participatory HIV and sexual risk reduction interventions since he was a member of the Adolescent Medicine Leadership Group, Chair of the Community Prevention Leadership Group, and a member of the Executive Committee of the NIH Adolescent Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions from 2003 through 2011. He has 11 years of experience in partnering with community based organizations in North Carolina for applied health promotion research that includes access to care, risk reduction for HIV and sexual risk reduction, as well as capacity building for empowerment of marginalized groups.

In addition, he has considerable experience working in residential and day treatment programs (e.g., Spaulding Youth Center, Rhode Island Hospital), working on primary prevention of youth violence, drug and alcohol use among teens, teen pregnancy prevention, diabetes and cardiovascular disease prevention. He has been a consultant with numerous federal and state agencies on community-based and community-engaged approaches to prevention and treatment of behavioral disorders, and is recognized internationally as a resource among foundations and governmental agencies.