, is the Dean of the 色戒直播 and Mary T. Champagne Distinguished Professor of Nursing. He previously served as Associate Dean for Global and Community Affairs from 2014-2023 and as the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education and Director of the Accelerated BSN Program for the School of Nursing from 2008-2014. He is also a Research Professor at the .
His focuses on the psychosocial aspects of HIV particularly focusing on intimate partner violence, HIV-related stigma, and interventions to promote engagement in HIV-oriented primary medical care.
Dr. Relf鈥檚 work examining the intersection of intimate partner violence and HIV risk behaviors among men who have sex with men received international press attention. As a co-investigator on a funded project to build nursing capacity in the context of HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa, Dr. Relf, in collaboration with colleagues from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Zimbabwe, published the endorsed by the International Council of Nurses, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. Dr. Relf tested the efficacy of an internalized stigma reduction intervention among women living with HIV in the United States. He has adapted this intervention to the culture and context of Rwanda and Tanzania. He and his collaborators (RTI International and M Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Tanzania) completed a clinical trial testing the adapted stigma intervention among women with HIV in Tanzania.
Dr. Relf is an Advanced HIV/AIDS Certified Registered Nurse (AACRN) and certified nurse educator (CNE). Prior to joining the School of Nursing in 2008, Dr. Relf was a tenured faculty member and Chair of the Department of Nursing at Georgetown University and the Associate Medical Administrator/Director of Nursing and Clinical Support Services at Whitman-Walker Clinic (Washington, DC). He earned his BS with a major in nursing from South Dakota University, his MS in nursing administration in healthcare services from Georgetown University and his PhD in nursing from Johns Hopkins University. He has been a visiting professor at Queen University Belfast (Northern Ireland), the University of Zululand (South Africa) and Fudan University (China). In September 2023, he was appointed a University Consulting Professor at the Fudan University School of Nursing (Shanghai, PRC). He is a 2019 Fellow of the NLN鈥檚 Academy of Nursing Education (ANEF) and a 2008 Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN).