Joaquín Carcaño

Joaquín Carcaño completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and then worked in community health in the Peruvian Andes. Following that, he spent six years at UNC's Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, where he focused on providing HIV care linkage and navigation services primarily for the Latinx community in the state. In 2016, Joaquín took on a prominent role as the lead plaintiff in the North Carolina HB2/HB142 lawsuit, which aimed to limit access to public facilities for transgender individuals and remove anti-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community. Subsequently, in 2018, he joined the staff of the Latino Commission on AIDS, Latinos in the South, serving as the Director of Community Organizing. He assumed the position of Director of Southern Health Policy in 2022. Joaquín is actively involved in several organizations, including the LGBTQ Center of Durham, the Southern AIDS Coalition, and the ACLU of NC, where he serves as a board member.

Maranda C. Ward, Ed.D, MPH

Maranda C. Ward, Ed.D, MPH, is an Assistant Professor and Director of Equity in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership in the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Ward is an expert in advancing anti-racism efforts within health sciences education and in designing curricula to enable students and faculty to competently promote health and racial equity in practice. Her research focuses on JEDI and antiracism educational interventions as well as stakeholder-engaged community-focused studies on HIV, Black women's health, and youth identity. As a member of the DC Center for AIDS Research (DC CFAR), she is the principal investigator on "Two in One: HIV and COVID Screening & Testing Model".

We would like to acknowledge the significant contributions of Nikhil Kalita, BS and Sadhana Matheswaran for their roles in researching, compiling, and editing content for this 9-part course series.