Michael B. Clark is pursuing their Masters of Public Health at New York University, with a focus on Social and Behavioral Health. Their primary interest is how stigma impacts the health and HIV-vulnerability of marginalized populations, with much of their research being with sexual minority refugees and migrants in East Africa.

While in Kenya as a Fulbright US Student Researcher, Michael helped LGBT refugees create the Refugee Coalition of East Africa, an organization who advocates for research and representation in the larger human rights mechanisms in Kenya and Uganda. Many of the people they work with experience stigma through multiple intersecting identities: as a sexual minority, a refugee, being gender non-conforming, living in poverty, as a sex worker, and often as living with HIV. Michael’s research and advocacy seeks to find the power though those intersections.

A recent graduate from City University of New York's Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies with a BS in Public Health and Human Rights, Michael's research began in 2016 while conducting research on similar populations in Uganda through grants from the Fund for Education Abroad and the US Department of State-funded Benjamin Gilman Scholarship. Since then, Michael has continued research and advocacy for sexual and gender minorities in East Africa and in the United States. Michael's interest in displacement comes from the traumatic resettlement their family experienced as a member of the Pit River Tribe of Northern California.

Prior to academia, Michael served as a combat medic in the US Army and was a personal trainer and competitive bodybuilder. Although currently living in New York City with their sometimes partner Christos and their two dogs, Bacon and Eggs, they consider the Pacific Northwest their home. Online, they tweet at @HealthLGBTQ.

Michael is honored to be an HIV League Scholar, and looks forward to continue their work to reduce stigma and improve health.

New York, NY - New York University - Two-Year Full-Time 2018 HIV League Scholar ($7,000)