People

montero-fernando
Fernando Montero, PhD
Columbia University - Chief T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies
Columbia University - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, HEALing Communities Study NY
Email: fm2440@cumc.columbia.edu
Education
PhD, Sociocultural Anthropology, Columbia University
BA, History, Princeton University
Research Interests
Narcotics supply, people who sell drugs, supply-side harm reduction, substance use, synthetic narcotics, HIV/HCV, skin wounds and soft-tissue infections, xylazine, fentanyl
BIO
Fernando Montero is a medical anthropologist. His main project involves developing the field of “supply-side harm reduction” in the United States by incorporating people who sell drugs into harm reduction research and intervention. His mixed-methods research combines the study of drug use and the study of drug selling to better understand transformations to the street drug supply in the United States, especially the emergence of synthetic sedatives (fentanyl and xylazine) and stimulants (crystal methamphetamine). He focuses particularly on contemporary changes in the risk environment for HIV, HCV, soft-tissue infections, and fatal overdose among people who use drugs in Philadelphia and the wider Rust Belt region. One of the central questions guiding his current research is why the opioid overdose epidemic is increasingly affecting Black Americans following almost three decades in which it predominantly affected White working-class Americans. He is also conducting a long-term ethnographic study of the War on Drugs and militarization in the Afro-Indigenous region of Moskitia on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua and Honduras.
Projects
Principal Investigator, An Integrated HIV/OEND Peer Navigation Intervention for Latinx People Who Use and Sell Drugs (PWUSD). Active
Principal Investigator, Towards Supply-Side Harm Reduction: Formative Research for Incorporating Latinx People Who Sell Drugs into Harm Reduction Interventions. Completed
Publications

Recent

Gelberg KH, Hall ME, Childerhose JE, Russo MR, Montero F, ...Chandler R (2026).
A mixed methods examination of organizational approaches to fentanyl test strip distribution and training across multiple states
Harm Reduction Journal [Epub 2026 May 18]. doi: 10.1186/s12954-026-01455-5.

Karandinos G, Montero F, Chang Y, Baggett TP, Unick J, Ciccarone D (2026).
Amputation rates among opioid-related hospitalizations in the United States, 2016 to 2022
Annals of Internal Medicine [Epub 2026 May 5]. doi: 10.7326/ANNALS-25-05273.

Dsouza N, Shetty N, Russo M, Chang M, Goddard-Eckrich D, Gelberg KH, Montero F, El-Bassel N, Gilbert L (2026).
Differences in xylazine and xylazine test strip usage among racial and ethnic minoritized populations: Findings from the Stay Safe Study
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 28 (2), 517-520. doi: 10.1007/s10903-026-01855-6.

Hochstatter K, Nadel T, Sisco E, Bourgois P, Laurel S, Appley MG, Pyfrom EM, Montero F (2025).
Characterizing rapid changes in the prevalence and concentration of key compounds in Philadelphia’s street opioid retail supply, March 2024-March 2025
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 274, 112763. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2025.112763.

Ciccarone D, Karandinos G, Krotulski A, Ondocsin J, Holm N, Montero F, Denn M, Moraff C, Mars S (2025).
Tranq burn: Exploring the etiology of xylazine-related soft tissue injuries
International Journal of Drug Policy, 142, 104830. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2025.104830. PMCID: PMC12167673.

Dr. Montero's Academia Profile
Selected Press