Michelle Gonzales

Michelle Gonzales, MPH joins DPS as the Ujima Mentoring Program Manager. The Ujima Mentoring Program is a newly funded NIMH effort to increase the number of NIH-funded scholars engaged in HIV-related research who are affiliated with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Michelle began her public health career in West Hollywood, California as a Health Educator for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In her role, she served on the Los Angeles Women's HIV Task Force. She went on to pursue her MPH in Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she worked as a research assistant for a qualitative study on the feasibility of providing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis at syringe service programs. Michelle has gained governmental experience with the California Department of Public Health Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Branch, where she primarily focused on providing hepatitis C technical assistance, and with the New Hampshire Office of Health Equity, where she completed a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Youth Health Equity Model of Practice Fellowship to identify workforce development strategies to reduce disproportionality. Michelle first joined UCSF as a School of Medicine Curriculum Coordinator. Her interests include project management, survey design, and qualitative research.