Stimulating
Training and Access to
HIV Research Experiences:

Dr. Juliet Iwelunmor is a Professor of Medicine and an Associate Director for Global Health and Dissemination at Washington University School of Medicine. Her research is centered around the use of culturally salient implementation science strategies to develop, implement, and sustain in community settings, evidence-based health interventions that reduce health burden and advance positive health outcomes. She is the PI of an R01 study aimed to use participatory crowdsourcing methods to drive HPV prevention among mother-daughter dyads in Nigeria (1R01CA271033-01A1). She is also the PI of a UG3/UH3 NIH phased grant aimed at assessing the effectiveness of youth-friendly implementation science strategies in increasing uptake and sustainability of HIV self-testing led by and for Nigerian youth (UH3HD096929). In addition, she has also led other implementation science trials focused on evaluating the scale-up and sustainability of well-proven chronic disease management programs targeted at hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors in sub-Saharan Africa

Dr. Joseph D. Tucker is an infectious diseases physician and Professor at UNC Chapel Hill with a special interest in social innovation and crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing has a group of individuals solve a problem and then share solutions with the public (more details here). He is Co-Director of the International Diagnostics Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His team’s ongoing research investigates crowdsourcing open calls to increase sexually transmitted disease test uptake in China, enhance research mentorship in LMICs, and promote HIV self-testing in Nigeria. His open calls have focused on promoting diagnostics, creating people-friendly health services, and enhancing uptake of vaccines. Dr. Tucker works closely with the TDR Social Innovation in Health Initiative. He has contributed to several World Health Organization guidelines and serves as a member of the TDR Global Working Group. Dr. Tucker has published 449 manuscripts. He received his BA from Swarthmore, MD from UNC, AM (RSEA) from Harvard, and PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Idia Binitie Thurston, PhD (she/her) is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor of Public Health & Health sciences and Applied Psychology at Northeastern University (NU). She is Associate Director of the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research at NU. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and serves on the APA board of Scientific Affairs. She trained at Florida State University, University of South Florida, and Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She directs the CHANGE lab, where she collaborates with scholars and community members in health equity science initiatives.

Idia Binitie Thurston, PhD (she/her) is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor of Public Health & Health sciences and Applied Psychology at Northeastern University (NU). She is Associate Director of the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research at NU. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and serves on the APA board of Scientific Affairs. She trained at Florida State University, University of South Florida, and Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She directs the CHANGE lab, where she collaborates with scholars and community members in health equity science initiatives.

Dr. Collins Airhihenbuwa is a Professor of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences and leads the Global Research Against Non-Communicable Disease (GRAND) Initiative at the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. He is a global health scholar and a pioneer in centering culture in global public health research and practice. For over 40 years, he has been innovating culturally based solutions to promote health equity in national and global health programs. He has led several multi-institutional partnerships for training diverse students and early career professionals to develop and implement public health research and intervention. He is the author of the PEN-3 cultural model that is used in several countries to develop programs and interventions to advance health inequity. He co-authored (with Chandra Ford) the Public Health Critical Race Praxis which is designed to offer a health equity lens to applying critical race theory in public health. He has served as a visiting scholar to UN agencies such as the World Health Organization and major universities, including Purdue and Boston University, and has served on boards of Saint Louis City and Hospitals, the National Advisory committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Scholars, the Global Philanthropy Alliance, and the board of Scientific Counselors for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Airhihenbuwa has authored 11 books and more than 170 articles and book chapters. His books include “Health and Culture, Beyond the Western Paradigm” in 1995, “Healing Our Differences, the Crisis of Global Health and Politics of Identity” in 2007, “Health, Culture and Place: From the Tree to the Forest” in 2022 (co-edited with Juliet Iwelunmor) and his most recent book “Health and Culture Beyond the Western Paradigm: Then and Now in 2025. He was previously Dean of the College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University in Missouri and Chair of Department of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State University. He is a former President and Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and a fellow of the American Academy of Health Behavior and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. He is also the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Scholar of the Year by the American Association of Health Education, the symbol of H.O.P.E award by the American Journal of Health Promotion, the Outreach award by Penn State University, the David Satcher award for leadership in reducing health disparities by CDC and DHPE, and the Mentor award by SOPHE.

Dr. Weiming Tang is an associate professor of UNC Chapel Hill, and the Co-Director of UNC Project-China. His background training is in epidemiology, with an emphasis on HIV/STI epidemiology, study design, and data analysis. His research focuses on promoting HIV/STI testing and healthy behavior change among key populations. Specifically, he is interested in using crowdsourcing and other participatory methods to enhance health services. He also pays specific attention to digital health/telemedicine, especially in the evaluation of digital health. He has co-authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications.