Bradley O. Boekeloo

Academic Degrees and Appointments: Dr. Brad Boekeloo received his bachelor’s degree from Kalamazoo College in biology (1981), a master’s degree (1984) and doctoral degree (1988) in public health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. He served on the faculty of Georgetown Medical Center from 1990-1994, the George Washington Medical Center from 1994-1998, and then joined the faculty at University of Maryland (UMD) in 1998. At UMD he served as Professor of Behavioral and Community Health (BCH) in the School of Public Health until he was appointed Professor Emeritus upon retirement from his tenured professorship in 2025.

Research Career Highlights: Dr. Boekeloo studied the sexual health, and related mental and behavioral health, of vulnerable populations including youth from low resourced communities, adults and youth in primary care clinics, racial and ethnic minorities in low resourced communities, sexual minorities, college students of Predominantly White Universities as well as those in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and gender minorities as well as primary care medical providers and primary care mental and behavioral health providers. He specialized in randomized, controlled trials of behavioral interventions at both the individual and group levels. Dr. Boekeloo's research was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other federal agencies, state health departments, and foundations.

His early research on provider-patient communication and behavioral interventions addressing sexually transmitted infection (STI) was recognized by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for Excellence in Primary Care Investigation. His provider-adolescent STI prevention program called ASSESS (Awareness, Skills, Self-Efficacy, and Social Support) was selected by a National Institute on Child Health and Development Advisory Panel for national dissemination through the Program Archive on Sexuality, Health and Adolescence. ASSESS was also an important source for the United States Prevention Services Task Force recommendations for clinical STI intervention in adolescents. Based on his research portfolio, Dr. Boekeloo was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Health Behavior in 2001. Dr. Boekeloo’s subsequent research examined the combined impact of alcohol and sexual risk-taking on adolescent health. For example, he received an NIH grant to study the impact of adolescent priming and pediatrician prompting for sex and alcohol discussion in health assessment visits on sex and alcohol risk-taking. This project was an important source for the United States Prevention Services Task Force recommendations for clinical alcohol intervention in adolescents.

From 2009-2025, Dr. Boekeloo served as the founding Director of the University of Maryland Prevention Research Center (UMD-PRC). As Director, he obtained funding for, and led, many projects addressing HIV and substance use prevention and treatment as well as sexual minority and gender minority health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Community Committee awarded the UMD-PRC the Community Partnership Engagement Award in 2010 and the Community-Based-Participatory-Research Best Practices Award in 2011.

In 2020, Dr. Boekeloo received the prestigious University of Maryland Recognition for Exemplary Research at the UMD-wide Provost award ceremony recognizing the one most exemplary researcher from each of the University's major disciplines. At last count, Dr. Boekeloo had over 100 peer-reviewed publications in medical and public health journals. He regularly served on research review committees of both the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many scientific journals; and served on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Health Behavior. He taught courses on behavioral intervention research methods as well as sexual and gender minority health.

Administrative Leadership Highlights: Dr. Boekeloo played major roles in the creation of public health training programs. At the George Washington Medical Center, Dr. Boekeloo served as Director of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Track, Master of Public Health Program (MPH). Subsequently, at the University of Maryland, as Graduate Program Director, he helped to establish the first MPH program and public health doctoral program in what was then the College of Health and Human Performance. These new public health degree programs served as the basis for the new University of Maryland School of Public Health. Dr. Boekeloo helped to establish the new University of Maryland School of Public Health as an Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and led committees in charge of obtaining Council for Education in Public Health Accreditation and the hiring of new public health faculty. In 2007, Dr. Boekeloo was recognized as a “Charter Contributor” at the new School’s opening ceremonies. From 2009-2025, Dr. Boekeloo served as the founding Director of the University of Maryland Prevention Research Center (UMD-PRC).

Recognitions for Service: Dr. Boekeloo received the Jerry P. Wrenn Outstanding Service Award in 2010 and the Murial R. Sloan Communitarian Award in 2011 from the University of Maryland School of Public Health. He also received the McNair Scholar Outstanding Mentoring Award (2018), the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society recognition at the Johns Hopkins University (2019), and the Lavender Leader Honor Society recognition (2019) from the University of Maryland LGBTQ+ Equity Center. Dr. Boekeloo served on various university faculty advisory panels and served as Principal Investigator for multiple research programs and projects that mentored faculty, students, staff, and community partners. Dr. Boekeloo and his life partner Dr. Stanley Drake endowed the Bradley O. Boekeloo, PhD and Stanley D. Drake, MD Meritorious Research Award for outstanding faculty innovation in research upon Dr. Boekeloo's retirement in 2025.