SPOTLIGHT on Anne Sebert Kuhlmann
Anne Sebert Kuhlmann, PhD, MPH
The Midwest D-CFAR community is full of brilliant and inspiring people, and we want to introduce them to the world! For our March 2025 spotlight, we are featuring Anne Sebert Kuhlmann, PhD, MPH, professor at Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice and assistant director of the Midwest D-CFAR’s Dissemination and Implementation Science Core. Many thanks to Dr. Sebert Kuhlmann for taking the time to speak with us!
Could you briefly describe your career journey and research interests?
Dr. Sebert Kuhlmann: I have had a very non-traditional path into academia. I first started working as a fellow in the Division of Reproductive Health at CDC in the early 2000s, working on large scale HIV prevention programming in several sub-Saharan African countries. I continued to work on those projects for over a decade as a contractor. And I went back to get my PhD thinking I would go into the government or NGO world. But then I had an opportunity to teach as an adjunct and then eventually a lecturer and realized I really liked teaching and working with students. So, I sort of meandered my way into academia.
And as for my research interests, my focus throughout my career has been broadly sexual, reproductive, and maternal health. I have worked on a whole host of projects, particularly large scale social and behavioral interventions to improve health outcomes. I initially started with HIV, also antenatal care, contraceptive use, maternal outcomes, that type of thing. But now I am coming back around to HIV as well with the D-CFAR.
What projects do you currently have ongoing?
From an HIV perspective, I'm collaborating with some investigators at SLU and a university in Ethiopia around HIV stigma, looking at how stigma affects willingness to seek care and how we can work with some cultural leaders in the area to help reduce that stigma and increase people's willingness to get tested and seek care.
Most of my current work is in the menstrual health and hygiene world, and I have a number of projects both in Ethiopia and the United States in that area.
You serve as assistant director of the Midwest D-CFAR’s Dissemination and Implementation Science Core (DISC) – what has your team been involved in lately and what do you have coming up?
The DISC team has been providing consultation services, which I really enjoy. I like thinking about research and study designs and all the dilemmas you encounter with research, when what you’ve designed from an ideal perspective hits reality of how you're going to do it. So even if it's not a project that I'm leading, I find that energizing and I look forward to it. Besides the consultation services, we have the Bootcamp coming up, which is exciting. And we have compiled a number of D&I resources on the website and have some interesting speakers that are going to be coming in this year as well. (Stay tuned!)
What do you do in your free time?
I enjoy being outside. I like to run, at least when the weather is nice. (As I get older, my tolerance for running in bad weather has decreased). But I also like to walk the dog, go hike, go to the state parks in Missouri and southern Illinois. Being outside is where I get energized, and where I go to burn off my work energy.
Edited by April Houston.