Cherrie B. Boyer, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics
Associate Director for Research & Academic Affairs, Division of Adolescent Medicine

Contact Info


Cherrie B. Boyer, Ph.D. is a Professor in Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. She is an internationally recognized health psychologist with many years of teaching and research experience in the area of adolescent and young adult health. Dr. Boyer has experience in teaching, training, and mentoring students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty from a variety of disciplines, including psychology, medicine, nursing, nutrition and social work. Dr. Boyer served as the Director of Interdisciplinary Training for the Division of Adolescent’s Medicine Maternal and Child Health Bureau-funded Leadership Education in Adolescent Health training program. She is currently the Associate Director for Research and Academic Affairs for the Division of Adolescent Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Boyer has been the recipient of many research grant awards and has published widely on adolescent risk behaviors and prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Dr. Boyer’s research focuses on biopsychosocial antecedents of sexual risk behaviors and the role that these factors play in STIs, and their sequelae. She also has extensive experience in developing and evaluating cognitive-behavioral, skill-building interventions and community-level programs to prevent and reduce the risk of STIs/HIV in adolescents and young adults in a variety of settings, including schools, teen and STD clinics, and community- and venue-based settings in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as nationally and internationally with military recruits and personnel.

A randomized-controlled, cognitive-behavioral intervention trial to prevent and reduce risk for STIs, unintended pregnancies, alcohol and other substance misuse, and exposure to or involvement with intimate partner sexual violence among junior enlisted military personnel – Principal Investigator

An Adolescent Trials Network (ATN)  multisite study to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a friendship-based, same-sex recruitment strategy for identifying new HIV infections in Latina and African American adolescent and young adult women who self-disclose being HIV positive, HIV negative, HIV status unknown (ATN 067) – Principal Investigator

An ATN multisite study to identify and describe the male sexual partners of adolescent and young adult women enrolled in ATN 067- Co-Principal Investigator

Boyer CB, Barrett D, Peterman T, Bolan G.  STD and HIV risk in heterosexual adults attending a public STD clinic: Evaluation of a randomized controlled behavioral risk-reduction intervention trial. AIDS, 11:359-367, 1997.

Boyer CB, Shafer MA, Teitle E, Wibbelsman CJ, Seeberg D, Lovell N, Schachter J. STDs in an HMO teen clinic:  Associations of race, partner’s age, and marijuana use. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 153:838-844, 1999.

Boyer CB, Shafer MA, Shaffer RA, Brodine SK, Ito SI, Yninguez DL, Benas DM, Schachter J. STD/HIV prevention in young military men:  Evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral skills-building intervention.Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 28(6):349-55, 2001.

Boyer CB, Shafer MA, Shaffer RA, Brodine SK, Pollack LM, Betsinger K, Chang Y, Kraft HS, Schachter J. Evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral, group, randomized controlled intervention trial to prevent sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies in young women. Preventive Medicine,40(2005):420-431, 2005.

Sieverding J, Boyer CB, Siller J, Gallaread A, Chang J. Youth united through health education: Building capacity through a community collaborative intervention to prevent HIV/AIDS in adolescents residing in a high STD prevalent neighborhood. AIDS Education and Prevention, August 17 (4): 375-385, 2005.

Boyer CB, Shafer MA, Pollack LM, Canchola J, Moncada J, Schachter J. Sociodemographic markers and behavioral correlates of sexually transmitted infections in a non-clinical sample of adolescent and young adult women. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 39(2):287-90, 2006.

Boyer CB, Sebro NS, Wibbelsman C, Shafer MA. Acquisition of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in adolescents attending an urban, general HMO teen clinic. Journal of Adolescent Health, 194(3):3-7-15, 2006.

Boyer CB, Sieverding J, Siller J, Gallaread A, Chang YJ. Youth United Through Health Education: Community Outreach to Prevent STI/HIV in Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40:499-505, 2007.

Shafer MA, Boyer CB, Pollack LM, Moncada J, Chang YJ, Schachter J. Acquisition of C. trachomatis by young women during their first year of military service. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 35 (3), 255–259, 2008.

Boyer CB, Pollack LM, Becnel J, Shafer MA. Relationships among sociodemographic markers, behavioral risk, and sexually transmitted infections in U. S. Female Marine Corps Recruits. Military Medicine, 173, 11: 1078-1084, 2008.