Dr. Sylvia Caldwell is a health science researcher in the department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. A majority of her works involves behavioral health interventions for those living with infectious diseases. Dr. Caldwell has been involved in interventions such as PositiveLinks, an award-winning mHealth platform for retention in HIV care, and several PositiveLinks related intervention that target specific populations. She is currently working on studies looking at the effectiveness of PositiveLinks, retention in care practices, online mHealth community board engagement, and alcohol exposed pregnancy in Native American populations.
Dr. Caldwell is a first generation college student who earned her B.A. in Health Care Administration at Mary Baldwin College. As a token of her time at the once all-women’s college, Dr. Caldwell has a small collection of squirrel tokens, key chains, and shirts, the school’s former mascot. After her time at Mary Baldwin, Dr. Caldwell went on to earn her Masters of Public Health from Eastern Virginia Medical School. It is also at Eastern Virginia Medical School where she earned her Doctorate of Health Sciences. Following completion of her doctorate work, she completed a two year post-doctorate research fellowship program in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at the University of Virginia. In 2023, Dr. Caldwell joined the faculty and staff in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences as a Research Scientist.
On a personal note, Dr. Caldwell is a Virginia native, born in Richmond and had the fortune of growing up all throughout the commonwealth. She lives with her husband outside of Charlottesville. She has a stepdaughter who keeps her one her toes and a furbaby named Newton. She enjoys cooking with her stepdaughter, running in the early mornings, and when time allows, traveling to see the world. She prefers to split her work time between her home office and her office on UVA grounds.”