Stefan Rowniak

Dr. Stefan Rowniak has been teaching at USF since 2011 after a long career as a Registered Nurse and a Family Nurse Practitioner. He started his nursing career with a BSN from the University of San Francisco in 1985 when the HIV/AIDS epidemic was decimating the local community. Subsequently, he joined the frontlines of the fight against the AIDS epidemic by arranging his senior preceptorship at the newly opened “AIDS Ward” at San Francisco General Hospital. After graduating with his BSN, he worked with AIDS patients at a local San Francisco hospital and was eventually hired for the position of ‘AIDS Liaison Public Health nurse’ for the San Francisco Department of Public Health in 1987 and served vulnerable populations of the local community impacted by AIDS. Since then, he has worked as a nurse in a variety of settings for over 30 years.

Dr. Rowniak received his MSN as a Family Nurse Practitioner from UCSF in 1991, and since 1993 he has been a Nurse Practitioner at San Francisco City Clinic, where he diagnosed and treated STDs, engaged in HIV prevention and care, and provided family planning services for women. In 2011, he received his Ph.D. in Nursing from the University of California, San Francisco.

The primary focus of his work, as a clinician and teacher, is sexual health. His dissertation examined the sexuality of trans men, and much of his current research continues to explore transgender topics with the purpose of providing greater understanding and social acceptance of this population.

At USF, Dr. Rowniak has been teaching Healthcare Policy and Ethics for which, his experience as a member of a local hospital ethics committee is invaluable. He teaches Sexual Health from a Public Health Perspective, a course he designed. He also precepts Nurse Practitioner (NP) students at City Clinic where they learn about microscopy and sexual health in practice.

• Sexual Health
• LGBT Studies
• HIV Policy and Prevention

• Post-Doctoral Student, University of California, San Francisco
• PhD, Nursing, University of California, San Francisco
• MSN, Family Nurse Practitioner, University of California, San Francisco
• BS, Nursing, SF State University, San Francisco
• Certificate, Alcohol Studies, Seattle University, Seattle
• BA, Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle

• 2010 UCSF Graduate Student Research Award
• 2009 UCSF Century Club Grant for Research at UCSF
• 2007 Betty Irene Moore Fellow for Doctoral Program at UCSF
• 1991 Ryan White Care Grant to initiate The Health Outreach Team in San Francisco

• Rowniak, S. & Chesla, C. (2013). Coming out for a third time: Transmen, sexual orientation, and identity. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42(3), 449-61.
• Rowniak, S. & Portillo, C. (2013). Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis: An Ethical Discussion. Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 24(1), 6-10.
• Rowniak, S., Chesla, C., Rose, C. & Holzemer, W. (2011). Transmen, situatedness, & HIV risk. AIDS Education and Prevention, 23(6), 508-20.
• Rowniak, S. (2009). Safe sex fatigue, treatment optimism, and serosorting: new challenges to HIV prevention among men who have sex with men. Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 20(1), 31-38.
• Ciemins, E. L., Flood, J., Kent, C. K., Shaw, H., Rowniak, S., Moncada, J., et al. (2000). Reexamining the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among gay men with urethritis: Implications for STD policy and HIV prevention activities. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 27(5), 249-251.
• Froner, G., & Rowniak, S. (1991). The cave: IV speed users. In Arnold S. Trebach & Kevin B. Reese (Ed.), New frontiers in drug policy (pp. 181-187). Washington, D.C.: The Drug Policy Foundation.
• Froner, G., & Rowniak, S. (1989). The health outreach team: Taking AIDS education and health care to the streets. AIDS Education and Prevention, 1(2), 105-118.
• Rowniak, S., Bolt, L., & Sharifi, C. (2019). The effect of cross-sex hormones on the quality of life, depression and anxiety of transgender individuals: a quantitative systematic review. JBI Database System Rev Implement Rep. doi:10.11124/JBISRIR-2017-003869
• Rowniak, S., Ong-Flaherty, C., Selix, N. & Kowell, N. (2017) Attitudes, beliefs, and barriers to PrEP among trans men. AIDS Education and Prevention 29(4), 302-314.
• Ong-Flaherty, C., Morgan, D., Rowniak, S., & Stevenson, E. (2017) Access, what access?: The lived experience of transgender individuals. In R. G. Johnson III (Ed.), Social equity in a time of change (pp. 139-154). San Diego: Birkdale Publishers.
• Selix, N. & Rowniak, S. (2016) Provision of patient centered transgender care. Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health 61(6), 744-751.
• Rowniak, S. & Selix, N. (2015) Preparing nurse practitioners for competence in providing sexual healthcare. Journal of Nurses in AIDS Care 27(3), 355-361.

Professional Memberships

• Member of Association on Nurses in AIDS Care
• Member of Gay and Lesbian Medical Association

Presentations

• 2010 Sexual Identity, Behavior, and Risk Among Female-To-Male Transgender Persons, Association of Nurses in AIDS Care Conference, Reno, Nevada
• 2010 Sexual Identity, Behavior, and Risk Among Female-To-Male Transgender Persons Who Are Currently Using Testosterone, UCSF Community of Scholars

Poster Presentations

• 2010 Sexual Identity, Behavior, and Risk Among Female-To-Male Transgender Persons Who Are Currently Using Testosterone, UCSF Community of Scholars
• 1999 The Prevalence of STDs Among Patients Seeking HIV Post Exposure Prevention (PEP) at San Francisco City Clinic, International Society For Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research, Denver, CO
• 1989 The Health Outreach Team: Taking AIDS Prevention To The Streets, American Public Health Association Conference, Boston, MA, 1989