Join the HIV Implementation Science Coordination Initiative (ISCI) for the next webinar in our series on Interventions to End the HIV Epidemic, “Increasing Uptake of HIV Testing: Community-Centered Interventions.”
The webinar will feature presentations on findings from two EHE projects, one led by Ucheoma Nwaozuru and the other by Abagail Edwards and Nichol Brewer-Lowry. Northwestern University’s alithia zamantakis and Jill Dispenza will also present an overview of implementing HIV testing interventions and moderate a discussion and audience Q&A.
Date: Monday, February 24, 2025
Time: 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. CT
Location: Zoom
Register for the webinar
Presentation Topics
Ucheoma Nwaozuru, PhD, will present findings from the EHE supplement project Community-Engaged Approaches to Expand HIV Self-Testing (CATEST). Project CATEST explored opportunities, barriers, and facilitators to implementing HIV self-testing among young adults in Mecklenburg County, NC. Learn more about the project by viewing slides from the project team’s presentation at the 2024 Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health.
Abagail Edwards, MSPH, is joined by community partner Nichol Brewer-Lowry, MS, from Native American LifeLines to present their EHE supplement project Utilizing a Culturally Grounded Approach to Address Disproportionately High Rates of HIV Among Urban Native Americans. The project identified barriers and facilitators to HIV prevention and treatment interventions, including HIV testing, for urban Native Americans in Baltimore City, MD. Learn more about the project by reading the team’s systematic review of implementation science for HIV prevention and treatment in Indigenous communities.
alithia zamantakis, PhD, will provide an overview of HIV testing through summarizing findings from the ISCI paper Innovation and Implementation Determinants of HIV Testing and Linkage-to-Care in the US: A Systematic Review. Jill Dispenza will also present on real-world examples of HIV testing interventions through her previous work as the HIV/STD Services Director at Center on Halsted, the Midwest’s largest community center for sexual minorities.
About Ucheoma Nwaozuru
Ucheoma Nwaozuru, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Implementation Science at Wake Forest University, School of Medicine. Her training and research experience have involved qualitative research methodology, community-based participatory research, crowdsourcing, and social innovations for health and the use of these principles to promote adoption, dissemination, and sustainability for evidence-based interventions. Nwaozuru has led and collaborated on a wide range of community-engaged projects to improve health outcomes, particularly cancer prevention, HIV self-testing, and HPV vaccine uptake. She has played a key role in co-designing and implementing interventions that directly involve communities in identifying and overcoming barriers to healthcare access. In addition to her research, Nwaozuru is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of researchers and public health professionals. She actively supports students, young people, and researchers, guiding them in the implementation science and community engagement with a focus on real-world applications of research.
About Abagail Edwards
Abagail Edwards, MSPH, is a Faculty Research Associate at the Center for Indigenous Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. With a focus on social and behavioral health methods and research, Edwards works closely with key stakeholders to design, implement, and evaluate community-based programming with Native communities. She is the Principal Investigator on an Ending the HIV Epidemic Supplement Award, a qualitative research study investigating HIV service delivery in Urban Native communities in Baltimore and Boston, alongside the community partner Native American Lifelines. Edwards also works on reproductive health programming for Native youth in the Southwest United States, increasing access to an at-home STI/HIV testing service and other HIV-related implementation science projects. Her specific interests lie at the intersection of research and practice, where community-based interventions can be leveraged with evidence from research to inform best practices for improving health outcomes in populations who are systemically underserved.
About Nichol Brewer-Lowry
Nichol Brewer-Lowry, MS, is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Nichol currently serves as the Site Director for Native American LifeLines Boston, an Urban Indian Health Organization. She is a Park Scholar and Coca-Cola Scholar who received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from NC State University. She continued her education at Chicago Medical School, where she earned a Master of Science in Biomedical Science and a Master of Science in Health Administration while completing coursework toward a Medical Doctor degree. Health issues prevented the completion of her MD degree, but she has recovered after spending more than two and a half years bedbound. Nichol has worked as a professor at various colleges. During the pandemic, Nichol worked as a seventh and eighth grade science teacher at Magnolia Elementary School in her tribal community. Nichol enjoys being an aunt and loves spending time with her family.
About Jill Dispenza
Jill recently joined Northwestern University to enhance community engagement in sexual minority and HIV research, to educate and learn from the community about engaging with research, gather questions that researchers can help address, and assist in the dissemination of research findings to the community. Previously, Jill was the HIV/STD Services Director at Center on Halsted, the Midwest’s largest community center for sexual minorities. In this role, Jill created, developed, launched, and directed the Chicagoland HIV Resource HUB, the Illinois AIDS/HIV and STD Hotline, and the Center’s HIV testing and prevention programs. Jill continues to serve on numerous planning councils such as the Chicagoland Syndemic Advisory Council, the Chicago Service Providers Council, and the Advancing Clinical Therapeutics Globally (ACTG) Protocol Development and Implementation Subcommittee and Outreach, Recruitment, and Retention Working Group.
Learn more about alithia zamantakis >>
More on the series: ISCI’s webinar series Interventions to End the HIV Epidemic brings together principal investigators of EHE-supported projects to share their findings and outcomes and discuss actionable strategies for implementing interventions. Recordings of previous webinars are available on our website.