Christopher Harris, MD
Dr. Harris' research activities focus on treatments for lung diseases. Funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Dr. Harris created a vaccine for lower respiratory illness in children with cystic fibrosis and he produced an inhalation solution for patients with mild to moderate cystic fibrosis lung disease.
Dr. Harris, along other GLMA past presidents and leadership, supported California's SB747 which would have required a broad range of health professionals to complete continuing education in cultural competency for treating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals. SB747 was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2011.
Robert Miller, Jr, PhD, M Phil., LMSW
Ayana Elliot, MS, DNP, APRN, FNP-C
Ayana Elliott MS, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, is a certified Family Nurse Practitioner with clinical experience in family medicine, hematology, oncology, and transgender medicine. She graduated from the University of the District of Columbia with a Bachelor of Science degree in 2005, and the University of Maryland Baltimore with a Masters of Science degree from the Family Nurse Practitioner program in 2008. Presently she is pursing a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at Chatham University.
Ayana’s areas of interest focus on health promotion, prevention, and primary care for adolescent MSM and transgender persons of color. She has done extensive work with a number of non-profit community-based organizations to develop programs and research that promote health and wellness among gay and transgender people across the United States and globally.
Ms. Elliott has presented her work in advancing health outcomes for transgender persons at national professional conferences. She has served as an invited guest lecturer and panelist speaking on transgender health issues across the United States. In 2008, Ayana developed The Woman in Me, a community-based health initiative for addressing the health and social issues for women of color who identify as transgender (male-to-female). The Woman in Me tailors health messages that are more likely to be personally relevant to this unique at-risk population.
Sheldon Fields, PhD, APRN, BC, FNP, AACRN, FNAP, FAANP, RN
Dr. Fields is a fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and a distinguished practitioner in the National Academies of Practice. He is a nationally board-certified family nurse practitioner with advanced certification as an HIV/AIDS certified registered nurse. His clinical background includes work in medical oncology, home healthcare, general family practice and HIV/AIDS primary health care. He spent the last nine years practicing in an underserved inner-city community based health clinic. His research focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment strategies for young men of color and has been funded by the Department of Health and Human Services – Health Resources Services Administration, New York State AIDS Institute, and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network.
He is a former national director of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) and received the association’s “President’s Award” for distinguished service in 2006.
Dr. Fields received his B.S. in nursing from the Decker School of Nursing at Binghamton University (State University of New York) in 1991 and completed his M.S. in family nursing with certification as a family nurse practitioner in 1995 at Binghamton University. His Ph.D. in nursing science was completed at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000 under the direction of Dr. Loretta Sweet-Jemmott. He then went on to complete a postdoctoral appointment as a visiting professor in the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California San Francisco.
David Malebrache, MD, MPH
David J. Malebranche, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Emory University’s School of Medicine and has a joint appointment with the Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, Georgia. Additionally, he is a former Visiting Professor at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) Training Program for Scientists Conducting Research to Reduce HIV/STI Health Disparities.
Dr. Malebranche is board certified in Internal Medicine, is recognized as an HIV Specialist from the American Academy of HIV Medicine, and has been providing clinical care to patients living with HIV/AIDS at the Ponce Infectious Disease Center since 2001. Additionally, he supervises medical providers-in-training at the Primary Care Center and on the inpatient wards at Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta. Dr. Malebranche is also an experienced qualitative HIV behavioral prevention researcher who has completed several studies on Black men who have sex with men, and is currently conducting a study exploring how social issues, mental health and coping strategies influence the sexual behavior of Black men in Georgia.
Dr. Malebranche’s work has been featured in medical and public health journals such as The Annals of Internal Medicine, The American Journal of Public Health, The Journal of General Internal Medicine, Health Affairs, Men and Masculinities, The Archives of Sexual Behavior and The Journal of the National Medical Association. He is known as a dynamic speaker nationwide and has appeared in documentaries on CNN, ABC News Primetime, TV One and Black Entertainment Television (BET) for his expertise on HIV in the Black community. Dr. Malebranche also served as a member of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) from 2006 – 2008, and is the current HIV/AIDS expert on webmd.com.
Gregorio Millet, MPH
Gregorio Millett, MPH, is a detailee from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), serving as the Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of National AIDS Policy. In this role, he coordinates the Office’s policy and research activities, including HIV prevention policy. He is also the staff lead for the HIV interagency working group that is tasked with developing the NHAS. Prior to his position with ONAP, Mr. Millett was a Senior Behavioral Scientist in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) at CDC in Atlanta. In that capacity, he authored numerous peer reviewed papers that explored racial/ethnic disparities in HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM), correlates of HIV risk behavior among bisexual men of color, and the relationship between circumcision and HIV acquisition among MSM. Mr. Millett’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including JAMA, AIDS, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, and American Journal of Public Health, as well as other medical and public health journals. Prior to his tenure with CDC, Mr. Millett was a fellow in the HIV/AIDS Bureau of the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA), a lecturer of lesbian and gay health at Duke University and Bowman Gray schools of medicine, and a board member of the Piedmont HIV Health Care Consortium.
Mr. Millett has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College and a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree with an emphasis in community health education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Lisa Bowleg, PhD
Lisa Bowleg, PhD is an Associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Prevention at the Drexel University School of Public Health, in Philadelphia.
Dr. Bowleg has long been interested in "invisible populations." Her research career has been built in two areas. . The first is the influence of factors such as racism, poverty, incarceration, gender role and sexuality on sexual risk in black communities. The second focuses on stress, resilience and coming out issues among black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Dr. Bowleg is the principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health-funded study on black men's sexual risk behaviors. "I'm working to get a more nuanced understanding of the context of black heterosexual men's lives to better understand their condom use and sexual risk behaviors." She's completed the qualitative phase of her study, and is now analyzing the data. She's also collecting data from 800 black men in Philadelphia for the study's quantitative phase. After that, her next stage will be designing and testing an intervention to prevent the spread of HIV among this group.
Dr. Bowleg is a former chair of the APA's Committee on Psychology and AIDS. In 2005, the American Psychological Foundation awarded her a Wayne F. Placek Investigator Development Grant. The grant supports scientific research to increase understanding of psychological issues among gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
Outhistory.org has additional recommendations about Black History Month. Read more at: http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Black_History_Month:_February_2012.
Some of the featured health leaders are members of the Black Gay Research Group. To learn more about this organization and its work, go to http://www.thebgrg.org/.
I hope that you find this information interesting and helpful. Happy Black History Month!
Henry Ng, MD, MPH, FAAP, FACP
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Laith Salma New York