Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus


Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor with the University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Rotheram is the professor-in-residence in the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She is the Director of the Global Center for Children and Families at UCLA and the former director of the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services.

Education and early career

Rotheram received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Irvine in 1971 and her PhD in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in child and community psychology from the University of Southern California in 1977. She was a Professor of Clinical Psychology in the division of child psychiatry at Columbia University from 1982 to 1993.
During her tenure at Columbia, Rotheram co-directed a clinic for suicidal adolescents and initiated her evidence-based programs on suicide, depression, and HIV. She mounted and evaluated multiple interventions which have now been selected and reviewed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Psychological Association as efficacious programs.
In 1993, Dr. Rotheram moved to UCLA, where she has been a professor for over 20 years. During this time, she led a national center for HIV prevention funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and founded the UCLA Family Commons, a placed-based preventive program to promote well-being for children and families.

Research interests

Dr. Rotheram's research interests include HIV and AIDS prevention with adolescents, children and family wellness, and assessment and modification of children's social skills. Dr. Rotheram has received more than 80 grants from the National Institute of Health to study HIV prevention with adolescents, the chronically mentally ill, and persons with sexually transmitted diseases; to study interventions for children whose parents have AIDS and for HIV-positive adolescents; and to examine national patterns of use, costs, outcomes, and need for children's and adolescents' mental health service programs.
In 1986, her work on suicide prevention was selected as the Outstanding Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program by the New York State Department of Mental Health, and her assertiveness training with children was chosen as an exemplary model by the American Psychological Association. Her research also has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Society for Research in Child Development, and the W. T. Grant Foundation.

Publications

Dr. Rotheram has published more than 300 journal articles, 11 Training Manuals, 63 book chapters, and two edited volumes, Planning to Live: Evaluating and Treating Suicidal Teens in Community Settings and Children’s Ethnic Socialization: Pluralism and Development.

Scientific leadership

Rotheram pursues research to find better ways to promote family wellness. Her leadership in disruptive technologies is one example of how she is asking science and prevention to progress intentionally and thoughtfully. To that end, Rotheram has been recognized with several awards and commendations for her work. In 2001, Science identified her as number two of the top-funded NIH multi-grant recipients; she was the only woman in the top ten.
Dr. Rotheram has overseen dozens of groundbreaking national and international efforts related to all aspects of HIV and AIDS. She has guided researchers’ efforts to identify and address health disparities across different communities by using experts from a variety of fields. She notes 45 trainees whose research is making a difference in people’s lives, including 22 trainees who are now successful academic faculty members.

Appointments