Sean Christian Beougher, Project Director

Sean Christian Beougher is the Project Director for the Gay Couples Study. Sean earned his Master’s Degree in Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University in 2005. His graduate thesis examined perceptions of race and desire for gay men in interracial relationships. Sean also holds undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Sexuality Studies from the same university. Sean’s research interests include the intersection of race and sexuality, historical perspectives on human sexuality, and couples-based sexuality research and HIV prevention.

Carla Garcia joined the Gay Couples Study in March 2008 as a Research Assistant. In May 2006, she received her BA in Psychology from San Francisco State University. While as an undergraduate, Carla had the opportunity to participate in two research fellowship programs. As a research fellow at UCLA, she examined first and second generation adolescents from Chinese and Mexican backgrounds to see how their generational status affected their choice of self-identified ethnic labels. The following summer she attended the University of Iowa’s summer fellowship program where investigated “benefit finding” among bone marrow transplant recipients. Specifically, she examined the role of optimism in benefit finding and the effects that it may have on psychological and physical functioning. Later, the study’s findings were presented as a poster at the American Psychological Association’s Annual conference in 2005. As a result of her two fellowships, Carla has been published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology and Developmental Psychology. Carla’s interest in working with HIV and gay men began after her first job in high school, where she worked as an office clerk for a medical practice in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco whose patient population was predominately gay men who were living with HIV/AIDS. Eventually, she would like to pursue graduate degree in the field of psychology or nursing.

Walter Gómez has been working on HIV research for close to seven years. He has worked on topics ranging from masculinity, violence, institutional and cultural stigma, and organizational readiness for intervention implementation, among others. This has allowed him to experience the causes, effects, and possible solutions for this epidemic from both micro and macro contexts. Walter is currently a Doctoral student in the Sociology program at UCSF. His upcoming dissertation will explore the ways in which race/ethnicity, culture, and power intersect in the process of design and deployment of risk-management strategies around HIV and drug use, within the context of MSM sex work. These themes should overlap with his proposed work in the Gay Couples Study, regarding the power dynamics within inter-racial couples, as they concern HIV prevention.

Deepalika Chakravarty, M.S. is the statistician for the Gay Couples Study and has been with the study for the last two years. She holds a Master’s Degree in Biostatistics from University of California, Los Angeles and a Master’s Degree in Statistics from the University of Hyderabad, India. In addition to analyzing the data being collected in this longitudinal study and interpreting the results, Ms. Chakravarty programs and maintains the ACASI surveys that participants take, and performs the data management. Since joining the team, she has constantly worked towards streamlining processes with the objective of eliminating duplication of effort and improving our interaction with participants.

Brianne Amato joined the Gay Couples Study in Spring 2009 as a part time research assistant. Brianne is currently the full time coder for the study, and will be wrapping up coding for all interviews by Fall 2009.

Brianne is currently a graduate student at San Francisco State University (MA expected '10), where she researches sexual assault, the process of recovery, and how societal discourse around rape might relate to the sexual pleasure reported by female rape survivors. Brianne hold a dual B.A. in English and Psychology from Brown University.