Black Public Health Influencer
Funder
ViiV Healthcare
Funding Duration
October 2024 – October 2027
Principal Investigator
Adrian Neil Jr.
Project Leads / Primary Contacts
Azzia Thompson
Description
The Black Public Health Influencer (BPHI) is a project of ETR that seeks to elevate the voices of young Black students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Through fellowship, BPHI Fellows become educators and advocates for sexual health and wellness of their communities and peers by utilizing social media campaigns. This is an effective tool for diffusing information and influencing health-promoting behaviors and attitudes among youth and communities.
Historical trauma, discrimination, lack of representation, and misinformation in healthcare have created barriers to accessing essential information regarding sexual well-being and resources. Our work with previous BPHI Fellows revealed emerging opportunities for building stronger connections with fellows’ HBCU communities and the potential for increasing the scalability, sustainability, and impact of the BPHI program.
Through greater engagement with HBCU communities, we will create more meaningful relationships that support recruitment and retention of our fellows, contribute feedback to the BPHI curriculum and project, and help us explore potential interest and capacity of HBCUs to adapt and replicate a version of BPHI in the future.
Through this new funding cycle and building on our past successes and lessons learned, BPHI will do the following:
- Empower students from HBCUs to take an active role in educating their communities about HIV and sexual health issues affecting Black communities using social media as a key platform.
- Advance the leadership and capacity of young Black HBCU students by building transferable professional and life skills that can be applied beyond the BPHI fellowship.
- Create a supportive network of young, emerging influencers attending HBCUs and mentors with expertise in media, communication, health equity, and health education.
- Explore HBCUs as potential hubs for replicating BPHI or other peer health education programs focused on innovative approaches to health education and HIV prevention and support.
B-PHI HBCU Committee Member (Remote - United States)
Reporting to the Project Director and Project Coordinator, the Project Consultant plays a key role in collaborating with project staff to enhance the development of the B-PHI training design and project overall. They will leverage their professional networks to support Fellow recruitment and increase project visibility, contribute to strategies for Fellow recruitment and retention, and apply their expertise to ensure B-PHI remains relevant, impactful, and sustainable within Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) academic communities. Committee members must be a HBCU graduate, current staff member and/or current administrator with a background in one or more of the following areas; 1) sexual and reproductive health for LGBTQ+ and black communities, 2) social media marketing and communications, 3) training development/design. This is a remote position and can work anywhere within the United States.
CULTURAL ATTRIBUTES
- You possess excellent communication and relationship-building skills with colleagues, partners and clients with utmost integrity, courtesy and diplomacy.
- You are capable of embracing the ideas of others and seek to understand others’ points of view in order to further our shared mission and vision.
- You enjoy working independently as well as collaboratively to meet goals and deadlines.
- You embrace a spirit of learning and curiosity in your work and proactively seek out answers and solutions to questions and challenges that arise.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
Consultants' experiences in navigating and working within Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) will be central to this role. ETR will also seek consultants' ongoing input through monthly check-ins and structured feedback, honoring their voices to ensure the development of the project aligns with both their expertise and the unique needs of the HBCU community.
Compensation: $4,000
Duration: 9 months; February 2025 – October 2025
Location: Remote – United States
For questions, please contact Azzia.Thompson@etr.org
