Matthew Epperson, Ph.D., MSW

Matthew Epperson received his doctorate from the Columbia University School of Social Work. His research interests include intervention research on the intersecting issues of criminal justice involvement, HIV, mental illness, and substance abuse. Dr. Epperson’s dissertation research examined the causative role of arrest or incarceration on subsequent sexual HIV risk behaviors for drug-involved men, as well as couple-level effects of incarceration on sexual HIV risks among heterosexual partnerships. He has more than 12 years of clinical and administrative experience in community mental health settings, including the development and implementation of a jail diversion program for persons with severe mental illness in Michigan. As a postdoctoral trainee, Dr. Epperson is working with Drs. Jeffrey Draine and Steven Belenko researching community reentry for mentally ill prisoners, HIV-risk contexts of community-based criminal justice participants, and HIV prevention interventions tailored for persons with mental illness. He will continue his work with Dr. Nabila El-Bassel and the Social Intervention Group at Columbia University, where he is an investigator on an HIV prevention intervention for women who are in the early stages of criminal justice involvement.

(732) 932-2190 (732) 932-1233 mepperson@ifh.rutgers.edu