HIV prevention and care; health disparities among sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) populations; intersectional stigma and discrimination; sexual and gender minority stress and mental health; gender-based violence and substance use
Akua O. Gyamerah, DrPH, MPH is a sociomedical scientist with training in HIV prevention and care, qualitative, and mixed methods research. Her research broadly aims to understand the multilevel and intersectional determinants of health disparities among racial, sexual, and gender minorities, including how historical and socio-structural factors such as racism, intersectional stigma, violence, and criminalization shape disease outcomes among these populations. She completed the Traineeships in AIDS Prevention Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship—an NIMH-funded T32 fellowship—at the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. Over the past decade, Dr. Gyamerah has conducted research in the areas of sexual rights, sexual health, minority stress, and HIV, with a focus on general and LGBTQ populations in Africa and in the U.S. Dr. Gyamerah’s current projects, examine: 1) the impact of gender-based violence on alcohol use and alcohol treatment among gender minorities in the San Francisco Bay Area; and 2) how intersectional social stressors affect mental health and HIV treatment outcomes among HIV-positive gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. Her research has been funded by the U.S. Fulbright Program and the National Institutes of Health.