Sholpan Primbetova
Sholpan Primbetova is a PhD candidate in Social Work at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Kazakhstan) and an Adjunct Research Scientist at the Columbia University School of Social Work (USA). With a background spanning over two decades, she holds degrees in pharmacy (Magna Cum Laude), finance, jurisprudence, and social work (M.S., Columbia University).
She currently serves as Regional Deputy Director at the Columbia University Global Health Research Center of Central Asia, where she contributes to interdisciplinary studies on gender-based violence, HIV, social protection, social work development, and health systems strengthening in Kazakhstan and neighboring countries. Her work emphasizes collaboration, local capacity-building, and equity in global health research partnerships.
Sholpan has completed extensive training in human subjects protection, HIPAA, good clinical practice, and research ethics through the NIH Fogarty International Center, CITI Program, and UN agencies. She has also served as a regional contributor to the EU-funded Responsible Open Science in Europe (ROSiE) project, where she helped lead a case study exploring the ethical challenges of implementing Open Science in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
She has co-authored numerous publications on HIV, drug use, overdose prevention, gender-based violence, and implementation science, and supports early-career researchers through mentorship and training on responsible research conduct. Sholpan is deeply committed to fostering ethical, inclusive, and locally grounded research systems that strengthen trust, protect vulnerable populations, and empower researchers in low- and middle-income countries.