Director’s Note

April 25th, 2025

 

Dear BIRCH Community, 

The UW BIRCH is funded by the NIMH through February 2026 in a no-cost extension period in which we will continue to support events, handle consultation requests, and promote impactful research on HIV and mental health. Core faculty who are organizing BIRCH activities during this scaled-down period include Susan Graham (Administrative Core), Lydia Chwastiak (Integrated Care and Administrative Cores), Patrick Raue (Developmental Core), and David Huh (Methods Core). Please reach out if you have any questions or suggestions for events!

We will be resubmitting an application to become a full NIMH-funded AIDS Research Center in August 2025, and are planning several upcoming events related to our proposed research cores and how they can best serve the BIRCH community. Our initial application received a very positive review that highlighted the many strengths of our center, faculty, staff, and proposed activities, with several addressable critiques. We have been working on our response to reviews and revised aims and strategies for each of the cores.

Best,

Susan Graham and Lydia Chwastiak, BIRCH Co-Directors