Dr. Escobar-Viera is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Program for Internet Delivered Interventions on LGBTQ+ Mental Health (PRIDE iM Lab) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is a primary faculty member at the NIMH-funded P50 ETUDES (Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergent Suicidality) Center and holds a secondary appointment in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.
Dr. Escobar-Viera is a trained psychiatrist and health services researcher with a master's degree in public health. As a researcher, his mission is to help eliminate mental health disparities among LGBTQ+ youth and young adults. To achieve this, Dr. Escobar-Viera leverages mixed methods and clinical trials for conducting both observational and intervention studies to better understand the potential benefits and risks of communication technologies and the clinical impact of digital interventions that target social media literacy, online victimization, and youth suicide prevention.
Dr. Escobar-Viera is also a committed educator. He mentors master, PhD, fellows, and medical students throughout master theses, doctoral dissertations, the Dean Summer Research Project (DSRP), and the IMPACT (Innovative Methods in Pathogenesis and Child Treatment) T32 fellowship program. He is a Longitudinal Educator (LE) in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he helps medical students learn the core foundational knowledge of the first two years of medical school. Finally, Dr. Escobar-Viera teaches the Spring course BCHS 3200 Scale Development and Survey Design in Social and Behavioral Sciences, offered to master and doctoral level students in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences in the School of Public Health (open to students from other departments, pending permission by degree program).
Dr. Escobar-Viera currently serves as member of the NIH Sexual and Gender Minority Research Working Group, which provides input to the NIH Council of Councils in relation to LGBTQ health research. He also serves as chair of the Communications Committee at the Society for Digital Mental Health .