African Americans and HIV/AIDS

Donna Hubbard McCree, PhD, MPH, RPh is Team Leader/Behavioral Scientist, Intervention Research Team, Prevention Research Branch, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention (NCHSTP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. McCree has over twenty-seven years of experience in Public Health and Pharmacy. She completed the Doctor of Philosophy with Honors (1997) and Master of Public Health (1987) degrees at The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland in Health Policy and Management with a specialty in Social and Behavioral Sciences. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship through the former Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (ATPM) with a specialty in Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) prevention. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude in Pharmacy from Howard University (1982) and is a registered pharmacist in the states of Maryland and Connecticut, and the District of Columbia. She has held numerous positions in the fields of Public Health and Pharmacy including academia, bioavailability research, professional association management, and retail and hospital pharmacy practice. She was on the faculty of the former College of Pharmacy at Howard University for over 7 years where she served as Acting Chair of the Department of Pharmacy Administration. Her training and expertise are in developing and conducting STD/HIV behavioral interventions. Her work has resulted in over 80 peer-reviewed publications and presentations at both international and national scientific meetings. Additionally, she is the recipient of numerous awards and was recently awarded the 2009 Minority Health Mentor/Champion of Excellence Award from the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention for outstanding commitment and achievement as a mentor for the ORISE Community of Color Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Kenneth T. Jones, MSW, is a behavioral scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP). He has served as the project coordinator of the Social Networks Demonstration Project and the technical lead for d-up: Defend Yourself! (d-up!)--a cultually adapted evidence- and network-based intervention for young men who have sex with men (MSM). Also, he has served as the project officer for a randomized controlled trial of a community-level intervention adapted for young Black MSM. Most recently, he lead an initiative to package intervention and training materials for d-up!, which is being disseminated nationwide to community-based organizations (CBOs) and health departments through the CDC's Diffusion of Evidence-Based Interventions (DEBI) initiative. He has served on several planning committees and workgroups at the CDC, including the Workgroup to address HIV/AIDS and STDs among African Americans and the DHAP Executive Committee on HIV/AIDS among MSMs. Prior to joining the CDC, Jones served as the Director of Research for the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, where he also participated in two liaison panels with the Institute of Medicine. He also co-authored and edited several research and policy reports including Say It Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud, one of the largest multi-city studies of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) men and women attending Black Gay Pride celebrations in the United States, and Leaving Our Children Behind: Welfare Reform and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community, which examines the impact of 1996 legislation on a segment of Americans largely excluded from the debate. He has served as a research and curriculum consultant with various AIDS service organizations including Gay Men of African Descent and People of Color in Crisis. He is a founding member of the Black Gay Research Group, a multidisciplinary team of Black gay researchers brought together to address the dearth of research on Black MSM, and the former board president of In the Life Atlanta, a non-profit community-based organization whose mission is to increase positive visibility of LGBT individuals of African Descent. Jones received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Michigana and a Masters of Science in Social Work degree from Columbia University in the City of New York. He has recently returned back to Columbia University where he is receiving doctoral training in social work and serving as a Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Social Intervention Group, a multidisciplinary intervention development and prevention organization at the Columbia University School of Social Work. Jones's recent manuscripts have appeared in the American Journal of Public Health, AIDS & Behavior, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Ann O'Leary, PhD is a Senior Behavioral Scientist in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her training included a summa cum laude undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania; a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University, supported by a National Science Foundation fellowship; and one year of postdoctoral training in Health Psychology at the University of California at San Francisco. She served on the faculty of the Psychology Department at Rutgers University from 1986 to 1999. She has conducted research on HIV prevention for the past 27 years, and has also published many articles on other aspects of Health Psychology. Dr. O'Leary has published more than 150 scientific articles and chapters, and has edited or co-edited three books, Women at Risk: Issues in the Prevention of AIDS, Women and AIDS: Coping and Care, Beyond Condoms: Alternative Approaches to HIV Prevention, and From Child Sexual Abuse to Adult Sexual Risk: Trauma, Revictimization and Intervention. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and won the inaugural "Distinguished Leader" award from the APA's Committee on Psychology and AIDS. She serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, and is a frequent consultant to NIH and other scientific organizations.

From the reviews: "This book reviews the history and context of HIV/AIDS in African Americans and discusses interventions targeting specific subpopulations. ... The authors intend this book for anyone interested in a greater understanding of HIV among African Americans and it is appropriate for health workers, researchers, academics, students, and activists. Each chapter is written by leading experts in the area. ... This is an expertly written body of work that superbly summarizes some key areas for understanding the HIV/AIDS epidemic disparity among African Americans." (Basmattee Boodram, Doody's Review Service, January, 2011) "This wide-ranging text compiled by experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) addresses many of the key issues associated with this disparity while making an important contribution to the field of HIV prevention. ... Readers who believe this epidemic can be stopped by more creative approaches to increasing consistent condom use or that the disparity is because African Americans engage in more risk behaviors than whites owe it to themselves to pick up this engaging book." (Eve D. Mokotoff, Journal of the American Medical Association, May, 2011)

• The Contribution to and Context of Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Tuberculosis in the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Among African Americans.- Context Chapters.- Epidemiology and Surveillance of HIV Infection and AIDS Among Non-Hispanic Blacks in the United States.- Racism, Poverty and HIV/AIDS Among African Americans.- Organized Religion and the Fight Against HIV/AIDS in the Black Community: The Role of the Black Church.- Disproportionate Drug Imprisonment Perpetuates the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in African American Communities.- Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health Disorders: Are They Related to Higher HIV Risk for African Americans?.- Countering the Surge of HIV/STIs and Co-occurring Problems of Intimate Partner Violence and Drug Abuse Among African American Women: Implications for HIV/STI Prevention.- Childhood Sexual Abuse, African American Women, and HIV Risk.- Interventions.- A Systematic Review of Evidence-Based Behavioral Interventions for African American Youth at Risk for HIV/STI Infection, 1988–2007.- HIV Behavioral Interventions for Heterosexual African American Men: A Critical Review of Cultural Competence.- HIV Prevention for Heterosexual African-American Women.- Formulating the Stress and Severity Model of Minority Social Stress for Black Men Who Have Sex with Men.- HIV Prevention Interventions for African American Injection Drug Users.- Structural Interventions with an Emphasis on Poverty and Racism.- HIV Behavioral Interventions for Incarcerated Populations in the United States: A Critical Review.- The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the African American Community: Where Do We Go from Here?.