The Dr. John Lamont Peterson Annual Research Symposium
Keynote Speakers:
- David Malebranche, MD, MPH, Board-certified Internal Medicine Physician, Sexual health/HIV expert
- Gregorio Millett, MPH, Vice President and Director, Public Policy, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research
Research talks by:
- Akshay Sharma, Assistant Professor, Health Behavior and Biological Sciences, U-M School of Nursing
- Racquelle Trammell, Love Her Collective Research Associate, U-M School of Public Health
- Celeste Watkins-Hayes, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, and Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, U-M Ford School of Public Policy; Professor of Sociology, U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Moderators:
- Gary W. Harper, SOAR Co-Director & Research Director; Professor of Health Behavior & Health Education, U-M School of Public Health
- Anna R. Kirkland, SOAR Co-Director & Academic Director; Director, Institute for Research on Women & Gender; Professor of Women's & Gender Studies, U-M College of LSA
Download symposium program here.
The first annual Dr. John Lamont Peterson Annual Research Symposium is the culminating event for participants in the Student Opportunities for AIDS/HIV Research (SOAR) program. The symposium will include poster presentations by SOAR scholars who will share findings from their mentored research experiences in behavioral and social science research related to HIV and/or sexual and gender minority populations. There will also be presentations by interdisciplinary researchers working to develop innovative and effective approaches to ending the HIV epidemic.
Register to attend in person or to receive the livestream link
Symposium Schedule:
9:00 am: Registration check-in (Palmer Commons Atrium)
9:45 am: Welcome Remarks (Forum Hall)
10:00 am: Keynote Talks
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“Me-search: How to Not Apologize for Subjectivity in HIV Research and Handling Burnout in the Process” - David Malebranche
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“Making an Impact” - Gregorio (Greg) Millett
11:30 am: SOAR Scholar Poster Presentations (Great Lakes Central Room)
12:00 - 1:00 pm: Lunch Break
1:00 pm: SOAR Scholar Poster Presentations (Great Lakes Central Room)
1:45 pm: Michigan Research Talks: Behavioral and Social Science Research on HIV/AIDS
2:45 pm: Closing Remarks
3:00 pm: Symposium Ends
Register to attend in person or to receive the livestream link
Portions of the symposium will be livestreamed on Zoom.
Keynote Speakers:
David Malebranche, MD, MPH, is a board-certified internal medicine physician with expertise in sexual health and HIV/STI prevention and treatment. He is a former Associate Professor of Medicine with both Emory School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine. He is also a public health official, activist, and educator who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and has appeared in the YouTube series “Revolutionary Health” as part of The Counter Narrative Project and also on the #AskTheHIVDoc video series. Dr. Malebranche has served as faculty for several continuous medical education (CME) series for Prime Inc., Clinical Care Options, Medscape and others, training health care professionals and lay communities on topics such as sexual health, racial inequities in medicine, and HIV/STI prevention and treatment. Dr. Malebranche’s writings and research have been published in JAMA, the Annals of Internal Medicine, the American Journal of Public Health, and Lancet. He has also been featured on the “Greater than COVID” campaign with the Kaiser Family Foundation and has written several articles on HIV treatment education at thebody.com. In 2015, he penned a memoir entitled “Standing on His Shoulders,” a memoir about lessons learned from his relationship with his father, which is available on Amazon.
Gregorio (Greg) Millett is a Vice President at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, and the Director of amfAR’s Public Policy Office. Mr. Millett, a former senior scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also worked as a Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of National AIDS Policy where he helped author President Obama’s original National HIV/AIDS Strategy and worked to support the Strategy’s implementation across the federal government. Mr. Millett has published quantitative research studies in top medical, public health and policy journals, including JAMA, Lancet, Health Affairs, and AJPH; and his work has received over 7500 citations to date in the scientific literature. Mr. Millett is a member of several domestic and global scientific committees, and he has worked and published with Dr. Anthony Fauci. In addition, he has been the recipient of scientific profiles in The Washington Post, Scientific American, The Lancet and other media. Recently, Mr. Millett’s COVID-19 research provided the first national glimpse of the pandemic’s impact on Black and Latinx communities, and these research findings have been quoted by Members of Congress during Capitol Hill hearings, used as an underpinning for proposed legislation, and reported widely across domestic and global print and televised media. In 2020, Mr. Millett was the opening plenary speaker for the International AIDS Conference. He is an alumnus of Dartmouth College and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
About John Lamont Peterson:
Dr. John Lamont Peterson (1949-2021) was a leading figure in early HIV/AIDS research and a mentor to many Black behavioral and social scientists. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1974. After teaching at Claremont’s McKenna College and Graduate School in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and realizing the growing impact of the early AIDS epidemic on African American men, Dr. Peterson joined the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) at the University of California, San Francisco, where he served as a Research Scientist from 1986 to 1993. In 1994 he joined Georgia State University’s Department of Psychology, first as an associate professor, then as a full professor from 2003 until his retirement in 2015. Over the course of his career, he contributed to understanding the predictors of HIV/AIDS risk reduction, the effects of behavioral interventions to reduce this risk behavior, and the social determinants of racial disparities in HIV infection, primarily among Black men who have sex with men. Dr. Peterson’s mentorship to many laid the foundation for the ever-expanding field of HIV research and advocacy. This event is named in his honor.
About SOAR:
Student Opportunities for AIDS/HIV Research (SOAR) is a two-year intensive academic and research mentoring experience that aims to prepare students for graduate education and eventual research careers in behavioral and social science research on HIV/AIDS, with a focus on sexual and gender minority communities. SOAR is funded by a five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR). The program is administered out of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, in collaboration with the School of Public Health, School of Nursing, School of Social Work, and College of Literature Science & the Arts.
Covid-19 Safety Protocol:
- All U-M faculty, students, and staff are required to be vaccinated and have received a booster shot by Feb 4, 2022.
- Face masks that cover the nose and mouth are required for this event, regardless of vaccination status.
- All attendees will be asked to show a ResponsiBLUE screening check status (https://responsiblue.umich.edu/sign-in) at the registration table upon arrival to the symposium.
Please contact Heidi Bennett (heidiab@umich.edu) with questions.
Register to attend in person or to receive the livestream link
