Abigail M. Hatcher, PhD

Abigail Hatcher’s expertise is in designing and trialing social interventions for health. Hatcher researches HIV care and treatment in the context of intimate partner violence, mental ill health, and poverty. She examines associations between social conditions and treatment adherence and develops interventions that target those conditions. 

Honors and Awards

2015, Sexual Violence Research Initiative

2015, Public Library of Science

2005, Rotary International

Teaching Interests

Hatcher is an Honorary Associate Professor at the School of Public Health of the University of the Witwatersrand where she teaches courses on qualitative analysis and mixed-methods research. She is a PhD Supervisor for the UNC-UNZA-Wits Partnership for Women’s Health Research. 

Research Activities

Hatcher examines the efficacy of social interventions through randomized control trials and mixed methods research. She explores plausible pathways of intervention effect through the use of structural equation modeling and qualitative process evaluations.

Service Activities

As a member of the Prevention Task Team, Hatcher helped guide South Africa’s National Strategic Plan on Gender Based Violence and Femicide.

Hatcher is an associate editor at AIDS and BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth, and co-edited a Culture, Health & Sexuality special issue on gender justice in sexual and reproductive health.

Practice Activities

Hatcher’s award-winning entry into the We Share Science film festival highlights how antenatal healthcare workers can prevent intimate partner violence. Her research on food insecurity and men’s violence perpetration was featured in the documentary “Food Apartheid” and news stories in The Economist, Daily Maverick, and The Mail & Guardian.

Hatcher has co-written curricula to train health workers to prevent violence in pregnancy (adopted by the World Health Organization) and assess for violence when prescribing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (adopted by PrEP Watch).

Key Publications

Longitudinal association between intimate partner violence and viral suppression during pregnancy and postpartum in South African women. Hatcher, A. M., Brittain, K., Phillips, T.K., Zerbe, A., Abrams, E.J., Myer, L. (2021). AIDS, Epub ahead of print 1-10.

Mechanisms and perceived mental health shifts during a livelihoods intervention for HIV-positive patients: Qualitative findings from rural Kenya. Hatcher, A.M., Hufstedler, E.L., Conroy, A., Doria, K., Bukusi, E., Dworkin, S.L., Cohen, C.R., Weiser, S.D.  (2020). Transcultural Psychiatry, 57(1), 124-139.

Gendered syndemic of intimate partner violence, alcohol misuse, and HIV risk among peri-urban, heterosexual men in South Africa. Hatcher, A.M., Gibbs, A., McBride, R.S., Rebombo, D., Khumalo, M., Christofides, N.J.  (2020). Social Science & Medicine, Epub ahead of print.

Pathways from food insecurity to intimate partner violence perpetration among peri-urban men in South Africa. Hatcher A.M., Stockl H, McBride RS, Khumalo M, Christofides N.  (2019). Am J Prev Med, 56(5), 765-772.

Education

PhD, Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, 2017

MPhil, Sociology (Development Studies), University of Cape Town, 2005

BS, International Business, Washington University in St Louis, 2001