Rate My Professor Erik Storholm

Erik D. Storholm is a tenured Professor in the Division of Health Promotion and Behavioral Science in the School of Public Health at San Diego State University. He earned his PhD in Clinical/Counseling Psychology from New York University in 2014, completed a predoctoral internship in Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at Beth Israel Mount Sinai Hospital in 2014, and held a postdoctoral fellowship in Substance Abuse Treatment and Services Research at the University of California, San Francisco in 2016. Earlier, he received an MA in Psychological Research from California State University, Long Beach in 2009 and a BA in Psychology from San Francisco State University in 2006. As a licensed clinical psychologist, Storholm directs the Sexual Health Equity Lab (SHEL) at SDSU, where his team develops, implements, and evaluates multilevel interventions to address health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations. Prior to joining SDSU, he served as a Behavioral Scientist at the RAND Corporation from 2016 to 2020, maintaining an adjunct appointment there, and currently holds a core prevention scientist role at UCLA’s Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services.

Storholm's research interests center on improving mental health outcomes, reducing substance use and violence, and preventing HIV/STI transmission in LGBTQ+ communities by tackling stigma, minority stress, and structural barriers to healthcare. His projects emphasize implementation science and community-centered approaches. He has secured significant funding, including a $2.9 million five-year R01 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health in 2021 to study the impact of intimate partner violence on HIV risk, sexually transmitted infections, and PrEP use among sexual minority men, as well as a three-year implementation science grant from the California HIV/AIDS Research Program to enhance PrEP services for transgender and nonbinary individuals at the Trans Wellness Center. Storholm received the Pioneering Leadership in Science Award from the California HIV/AIDS Research Program. Select publications include "Intimate Partner Violence and its Association with Symptoms of Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among HIV-Negative Cisgender Sexual Minority Men in the United States" (2026), "The Impact of Discrimination on Young Black Sexual Minority Men Living with HIV in the US South" (2025), "Qualitative client perspectives on PrEP well: a community-led PrEP implementation project" (2025), and "Intimate Partner Violence and the Sexual Health Experiences of Sexual Minority Men" (2023). His work advances health equity through rigorous behavioral and biomedical interventions.