Black History Month 2022 - Hetrick-Martin Institute

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
This year HMI celebrates Black History Month by recognizing former staff members for their achievements and contributions.

Click on images below for bio and accolades.

Pamela Sneed was the Coordinator of the HMI Drop-In Center on West Street during the 1990’s. Today, Pamela is a New York-based poet, performer and visual artist. Her memoir, Funeral Diva, which documents growing up in the midst of the AIDS crisis and focuses on the experiences of Black queer women won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for lesbian poetry. She has served as a panelist for The David Zwirner Gallery’s More Life exhibit and has spoken at Bard Center for Humanities, The Ford Foundation, The Gordon Parks Foundation, Columbia University, The New School and NYU’s Center For Humanities. She currently has work on view at the at the Leslie Lohman Museum and recently won the 2021 Black Queer Art Mentorship award for her leadership and literary talent.

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Darnell L. Moore served as Director of Educational Initiatives at HMI from 2011-2013, leading the charge in creating HMI New Jersey under his strategic direction. He has since then enjoyed an illustrious career that has focused on marginal identity, equity and social justice.

Darnell is Vice President of Inclusion Strategy for Content and Marketing at Netflix. Prior to this, he was Head of Strategy and Programs at Breakthrough US, a global socially innovative creative hub that uses media, art, and tech to shift gender norms. He has also held Senior Editorial and Correspondent roles that centered on issues of diverse identities, equity and social transformation. His work has included a 4-part mini-doc series exploring Black LGBTQIA+ life in Atlanta as well as host of a digital series, The Movement, that covered the people working to address social justice issues across the country. The series was subsequently nominated for a Breakthrough Series: Short Form Award at the 2016 IFP Gotham Awards.

In addition to the work he has contributed to public dialogue on race, Darnell has been an advocate for gender equity and sexual diversity. He has served as the co-managing editor at The Feminist Wire since 2010 and an editor of The Feminist Wire Books (a series of University of Arizona Press). He is also a writer-in-residence at the Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice at Columbia University and was a 2019 Founding Fellow at the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the UCLA.

A prolific writer, Darnell has been published in various media outlets including the New York Times, Vanity Fair, MSNBC, The Guardian, Quartz, Playboy, Huffington Post, EBONY, The Root, The Advocate, OUT Magazine, Gawker, VICE, Guernica, Thought Catalog, Good Men Project and others, as well as numerous academic journals including QED: A Journal in GLBTQ World Making, Women Studies Quarterly, Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media & Technology, Transforming Anthropology, Black Theology: An International Journal, and Harvard Journal of African American Policy, among others.

Darnell is the author of the 2019 Lambda Literary Award nominated memoir, No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America, which was listed as a 2018 NYT Notable Book and a 2018 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. He is currently at work on his second book, which is tentatively titled, Unbecoming: Visions Beyond the Limits of Manhood. This past November, Darnell spoke to Forbes magazine, about his decades long career of creating equitable pathways for the Black LGBTQIA+ community and season three of his award-winning podcast, Being Seen.

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Lourdes Dolores Follins, Ph.D., LCSW-R worked as a Counselor at HMI from 1995 to 1997 and ran HMI’s first-ever support group for trans* young adults. She went onto earn her Ph.D. in Clinical Social Work from NYU in 2003 and one year later, began teaching at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY where she eventually became an Associate Professor. Lourdes Dolores has received multiple honors including a National Institute of Mental Health (2008-2012) Minority Research Fellowship, a 2013 Angela Davis Award from Gay Men of African Descent, a 2015-2016 CUNY Chancellor’s Research Award, and a 2017 GLMA Achievement Award for her groundbreaking book, Black LGBT Health in the United States: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation.

Lourdes Dolores has published several scholarly articles and book chapters regarding the health and well-being of Black and Latinx queer, trans, and intersex individuals. In addition to her academic work, Lourdes Dolores’s creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rigorous, Watermelanin, Medium, Feminine Collective, Writing in A Woman’s Voice, The Writing Disorder, Sinister Wisdom, Gertrude Press, SLAB, Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere. She currently has a private psychotherapy practice working with queer, trans, and intersex people of color and is working on a book that both demystifies psychotherapy for those who never see themselves in books about therapy (e.g., queer, trans, and intersex people, BIPOC queer, trans, and intersex people, and BIPOC people) by describing what it looks and feels like, and humanizes therapists.

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Wade Davis led programs in Job Readiness as Assistant Director at HMI from 2011-2013 and was also an advisor to the Youth Advisory Board. In an interview with The Advocate in 2012, he described his experience at HMI …

“This is my second dream job. I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to play in the NFL, and now I have the opportunity to change the life of so many young people, every single day. I mean, they’re the heroes. They’re the real ones who have the courage to fight, and to be themselves. I look back and I think, ‘Wow, how did I think I had a struggle when I was afraid to be gay at 24, when these kids are 12, 13, 14 years old, living their truth.’ It really puts a lot of things in perspective.”

Before joining HMI, Wade played in the NFL for the Tennessee Titans, Washington Redskins, and Seattle Seahawks as well as in the NFL Europe for teams in Barcelona and Berlin. In 2003, he retired from the Washington Redskins due to injury and later became captain of the National Gay Flag Football League, the New York Warriors.

Wade also served as Executive Director and Director of Professional Sports Outreach for the You Can Play project—an advocacy organization working to eradicate homophobia in professional sports—where he developed curriculum, programming, training, and facilitated conversations focused on inclusion, equality, equity, and diversity.

Wade has been invited to keynote and present workshops at colleges, universities, and corporations around the world and has been featured in The Washington Post, CNN, NPR, USA Today, People Magazine, Ebony Magazine, BET, Outsports, and the Bleacher Report for his activism and personal story. Wade’s writings have appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, The Advocate, Good Housekeeping, The Guardian and Outsports. He has also contributed to the book, For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home by Keith Boykin.

Wade has also been an Adjunct Professor at both the NYU School of Professional Studies Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media, and Business and the Rutgers University School of Public Affairs and Administration.

He also co-founded with HMI staff Darnell Moore, the YOU Belong initiative, a three-day comprehensive sports instruction and leadership development clinic for LGBTQ and straight allied youth. During that time, Wade also launched the Speaker’s Collective, aimed at providing support, promotion and sense of community for LGBTQ professionals of color.

Wade was the NFL’s first LGBT Diversity and Inclusion Consultant and has consulted for numerous professional sports leagues on issues at the intersection sexism, racism and homophobia. He also has consulted for Google, Netflix, AppNexus and others to co-create transformative solutions to build inclusive corporate cultures.

Wade has also starred in the documentary F(l)ag Football about the National Gay Flag Football League and guest starred on the drama series, American Crime in 2016, and he has served as a board member at GMHC and an advisory board member for the GLSEN Sports Project.

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Verna Eggleston joined HMI in 1994 as Director of Programs. One year later, she was promoted to Associate Executive Director, which she held for three years before being named Executive Director. Verna served as Executive Director at HMI from 1998-2001, during which time she met and was sought upon by Mike Bloomberg for advice on social services issues in New York. Prior to joining Hetrick-Martin, Verna served as Deputy Commissioner of NYC Child Welfare.

Verna, today, leads the Women’s Economic Development initiatives at Bloomberg Philanthropies—a role she has held since the program’s inception in 2007. The initiatives have impacted over 537,700 women benefiting over 2.15 million family members globally, ensuring their economic independence.

Verna currently holds a permanent seat at the United Nations Economic and Social Development Council (ECOSOC), representing Bloomberg Philanthropies in a consultative status and currently serving as an Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She has also been appointed to the Africa Advisory Board for the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda.

Prior to joining Bloomberg Philanthropies, Verna worked for more than four decades in human and social development, both in government and the private sector. She returned to government as the Commissioner for New York City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA) for the Bloomberg Administration. She was the longest serving Commissioner of the agency, serving in this role from 2002 to 2007, and was the first Commissioner appointed to the position twice by the same sitting Mayor.

Under her leadership, HRA developed “We Care”, a mayoral initiative which received the 2008 Innovation Award from the United States Department of Labor. In 2016, Verna received the Civic Leadership Award from the Citizens Committee in New York and in 2017 received the Radical Generosity Award from the New York Women’s Foundation.

Verna also served for 12 years under the administrations of Mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins at HRA, working on many social issues including opening the first facility for infants with AIDS, to being appointed Deputy Commissioner for the Administration for Children’s Services and Deputy Administrator of the Emergency Assistance Units in the five boroughs of New York City.

Verna was named one of the 100 Black Executives by Black Enterprise magazine and received the Arthur Ashe award for social development. She presented her work on social reform before Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma of South Africa, and the Presidents of Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda. She worked with Oprah Winfrey and the Governor of Illinois on legislation against child abuse, and Attorney General Janet Reno on hate crimes.

Verna received her Master’s Degree as a Mayor’s Scholar at the New School of Social Research School of Urban Development.

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Tiq Milan worked at HMI as an Educational Specialist, CRCS in HIV Prevention from 2011-2013. After leaving HMI, he joined GLAAD as a Senior Media Strategist and National Spokesperson. As noted in his Ted Speaker profile, Tiq has been most inspired by his years mentoring LGBTIA+ youth at the Bronx Community Pride Center and Hetrick-Martin. He was able to witness firsthand the intersectional lived experiences of gay and trans youth and how it’s affected by social systems put in place to help them.

Tiq has been a long-time advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, and has shared his story of being transgender and how that informs his views on masculinity, race and gender. As a writer and consultant, who speaks about intersectional leadership, transgender rights and racial justice, Tiq has carved out a niche for himself as a media advocate and one of the leading voices for transgender equality. He has led discussions throughout North America on healthy modes of masculinity, inclusive leadership and creating cultures of consent. Tiq has lectured at several universities including Harvard, Stanford and Brown on the importance of inclusion as tool of innovation and outlines concrete strategies for productive engagement.

To this day, he is a sought-after host and strategic media consultant, having moderated conversations about LGBTIA+ representation in media for HBO’s Newfest Film Festival, The Toronto Film Festival, LOGO and MTV. He has hosted authors in conversation at The Schomburg Center for Research, NYU and Princeton.

Tiq has also guided organizations and companies in creating detailed media campaigns that engage diverse audiences in ways that are inclusive and authentic. He has worked with HBO, NBC News and various film and television producers on the rollout of various projects including the documentaries, HBO’s Suited and Netflix’s The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson.

Tiq has been featured in a national media campaign for the It Gets Better Project, was a contributing author to the anthology Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, and was the Co-Chair for the LGBT taskforce of the National Association of Black Journalists. He has done on-air interviews for CNN Reliable Sources, BlackEnterprise.com, Al Jazeera America and MTV. He has penned articles for BET.com, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Source, Vibe, Buzzfeed, MIC, NBC and others on issues facing the LGBTIA+ movement. Tiq documented his transition in the film, U People and was a creative consultant for the 2020 documentary, Disclosure.

Tiq is currently the co-Founder along with his wife, Kim Katrin Milan of Milan Media Arts Productions—a content creation and consulting firm that is dedicated to creating narratives of queer people and their allies. His 2016 TED Talk A Queer Vision of Love and Marriage alongside his wife, Kim Katrin Milan has been viewed over 3 million times and continues to inform and inspire people all over the world.

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Bali White worked at HMI from 2010-2013 as an HIV Prevention Coordinator under Health & Wellness. While at HMI, she also developed and implemented initiatives for young trans women and men who have sex with men in the ballroom community. Prior to joining HMI, Bali focused on addressing the unique health needs of hard-to-reach sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations.

Similar to her work at HMI, Bali designed and managed NYC and CDC funded health programming at Housing Works, GMHC, and Harlem United serving SGM youth and adults. At Lutheran Medical Center, Bali coordinated HIV/STD and hepatitis prevention strategies targeting populations often thought inaccessible—undocumented immigrants, the homeless, youth, LGBTQIA—throughout Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Bali went onto serve as an Associate at the National Center for Transgender Equality organizing trainings, workshops and meetings on improving workplace policies, health and legal coverage, and other diversity and inclusion topics related to cultural sensitivity for federal agencies such as the Department of Justice, White House, Department of Education, Congressional Staffers, as well as corporations and universities, and facilitated communications with SGM communities and allies nationally.

Bali is currently working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion as a Principal Strategist within the Portfolio for Sexual and Gender Minorities group. She first joined the NIH in 2014 as a NIH Academy Intramural Research Training Awardee. Assigned to the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences and the mentorship of Dr. William Elwood, as a Fellow she presented research posters across NIH, on Capitol Hill and at the International AIDS Conference in South Africa, regarding intersectional impacts on the health of African American women of transgender experience in NYC. She also co-authored an American Psychological Association textbook chapter on counseling transgender people of color.

Bali is known in the community for advocating and addressing transgender identity, legal, healthcare and social concerns at the national, state and local levels. Her research and activist work around transgender advocacy and ballroom community youth has been influential in the field of public health.

She is a magna cum laude graduate of Columbia University, where she also completed her masters work. Bali has an academic background in cultural studies and languages, and she has served on the National Advisory Board for the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, and the NYC HIV Prevention Planning Group. She received a Commendation of Excellence by the NYC Comptroller in 2009 for her outstanding work and research and was invited to the White House in 2013, as an emerging LGBT leader and a longtime Research consultant with NYC Department of Health. In 2014, Bali was named part of the Trans 100 by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.

In her spare time Bali studies kathak, a classical north Indian dance form, and volunteers weekly at the Smithsonian Institution’s Cheetah Conservation Station.

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David Mensah served as Executive Director from 2002-2007 for HMI, where he led our organization’s historic $6 million expansion phase partnering with the New York City Department of Education to found the Harvey Milk High School. Prior to joining HMI, David held the post of Executive Director for the Connecticut AIDS Residence Program, which provides housing and support for people living with HIV/AIDS.

His career also includes serving as an Adjunct Faculty Member at The School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, teaching leadership development to masters and executive master’s students interested in expanding and developing their leadership capacity in the non-profit field. He also worked as a marriage and family counselor while teaching courses in both trauma counseling and leadership to graduate students at Sacred Heart University the University of Bridgeport, respectively. In 2015, he also served as the designer and facilitator of the NYC – DOE Parent Council Leadership Institute.

Today, David, is the Principal Partner of WAVE Training and Consulting LLC, which provides leadership training and executive coaching to organizations committed to developing and enhancing employee leadership skills. He has two BS degrees from Oregon State University, a Certificate in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Bridgeport and a M.Div. from Yale Divinity School. David is a dynamic public speaker and master trainer, speaking at conferences and seminars on leadership.

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Aisha Diori served as Assistant Director of Health and Wellness After-School Programming at HMI from 2008-2014. Prior to joining HMI, Aisha served as Community Health Specialist Director at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) from 1998-2008, where she performed outreach work and hosted HIV prevention balls to curtail the number of newly HIV infected youth.

During that time, she began walking balls which eventually led to a shift in interests from being a participant to serving as a community organizer and intervention specialist in the ballroom scene. She connected with fellow Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) classmate, Legendary Big Boy Runway Ricky Revlon, who eventually became her gay father, along with Arbert Santana, an LGBT and HIV awareness activist, who later became her house mother. They both helped usher Aisha into the House of Latex, forever changing her commitment to the LGBTQ+ community.

Later, Aisha received the title of “house-mother” from The House of Latex because of her commitment to ballroom culture—a title she held for nearly five years. In late 2007, Aisha opened the House of Iman, pairing safer sex and prevention messages that specifically targeted the Women, Butch and Transgender (WBT) ballroom scene. She infused progressive safer sex and educational messaging with pageantry. The House of Iman, a name that pays homage to Aisha’s Nigerian heritage, continues to be a source of leadership in the WBT community. Aisha was born in Nigeria, West Africa.

Acknowledging that youth were not best served in the mainstream ballroom scene, Aisha and Arbert Santana created the Kiki scene, a ballroom-infused HIV prevention intervention and movement focusing on LGBTQ+ youth ages 12 to 24, where the young people vogue, hang out with friends and get connected to HIV testing, counseling and healthcare services.

Upon leaving HMI in 2008, Aisha joined the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem as Special Events Manager, and continues her involvement with LGBTQ+ people in the House ball community. Four years later, she joined the MINA TV AFRICA in NYC as host for their Award Winning ABS Show covering trending news in Africa and the world.

Aisha also adds an entertainment spin to her existing experience in events. She is a comedian and event MC for many events within the Black Diaspora such as Miss Nigeria USA pageant, Nigeria Ent Awards, African Diaspora Awards, Afropolitan NYC, Africa Restaurant Week, Schomburg Center Comic Book Festival Cosplay, BAM Black Comix Festival, MASCARA Trans Day Of Remembrance Conference, First Fridays at the Schomburg, One Africa Music Week NYC, Afro beats To The World at PlayStation Theater 2019, and NYC Black Pride NYC .

She has also created a fun comedic character named “Ms. Ayodele”, who is a no holds barred sassy Nigerian Mother/Aunty who gives unsolicited advice on YouTube. You can also catch her on The Abs Show on Mina TV Africa where she and her co-hosts bring you up to speed on popular culture topics in Africa.

Aisha fostered the creation of a social conscious collective of creatives to create a Charity called Africa Everything. It promotes an Annual Afro beats Diaspora event fundraiser, a collective formed to promote and empower the Black African Diaspora with music, culture, and unique event experiences. Funds raised are invested in helping foster educational programs and initiatives all over West Africa.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in advertising and marketing communications from Fashion Institute of Technology where she graduated magna cum laude. Her HIV prevention work with LGBTQ+ youth in Ball culture, an LGBT subculture, has been influential in the field of public health. She is a co-founder of the KiKi Ballroom scene and has been has been named “Iconic Mother” in ballroom culture. She is considered an expert in engaging this historically difficult-to-reach population, and her expertise is requested for grants and program development, and research and curriculum development.

This past November, Aisha was recognized by Hetrick-Martin Institute with an Emery Award for her commitment and contributions to the LGBTQIA+ community over the years.

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George Bouldin Gates served as an Outreach & Education Specialist at HMI from 1993-1997, working with the Drop-In Center and overseeing the POWers program. The POWers program was designed for youth to serve as Peer Outreach and Orientation workers, helping their peers connect to HMI at its new location at 2 Astor, when we relocated from West Street. The program morphed into a POWers HIV prevention education internship program, and today, POWers interns act as the welcome wagon for new members at HMI and facilitate drop-in programs and orientations.

George has worked in the non-profit world of HIV awareness and prevention for more than two decades. His time in the field, in addition to his work at HMI, includes New York Blood Center’s Young Men’s Survey and Project ACHIEVE, GMHC, POCC and Harlem United in NYC.

George currently serves as a Senior Community Liaison at Gilead Sciences, where he works closely with accounts to provide training to staff and patients on a variety of topics focused on living well with HIV and preventing HIV. He also provides technical assistance and capacity building to accounts through training and CQI efforts focused on improving and strengthening systems, protocols for rapid start and PrEP implementation, and activities assisting accounts with improving client and patient engagement in care and prevention to help end the HIV epidemic.

A graduate of Rutgers University, George holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Media and has also earned an Executive MBA from University of Maryland Global Campus.

Dr. Joyce B. Hunter served as HMI’s very first Clinical Director of Social Services, hired by Dr. Emery Hetrick and Dr. Damien Martin in 1980, remaining on with our organization through 1991. During her 10-year tenure at HMI, Dr. Hunter co-developed a counseling program, drop-in center, and outreach project to street and homeless youth. She was one of the founding members of HMI’s Board of Directors and she also co-founded the on-site high school program, Harvey Milk High School. Dr. Hunter has mentored and supported HMI’s leadership since the beginning.

Drs. Emery Hetrick and Damien Martin ensured there would be a community response to the critical needs of LGBTQIA+ young people, while Dr. Joyce Hunter ensured that the community response would be grounded in a practice that is youth-centered, holistic, inclusive, empowering, and loving.

Dr. Hunter saw the strength, beauty and resilience of queer youth, and developed a programmatic and clinical approach that recognizes the impact of oppression and the need for systemic change. She modeled what it means to invest in the wisdom and hope of young people and their need for honest, authentic and brave adult advocates.

Her pioneering clinical work and program development work laid the foundation for subsequent generations of social workers and youth service providers to be able to start queer youth programs across the country, and the ability to choose LGBTQIA+ focused work as a career option.

Dr. Hunter shares a similar narrative with some of HMI’s young women—the child of an unwed Orthodox Jewish mother and an African-American father, she started out as a newborn at a home for unwed mothers on Staten Island, spending much of her childhood in an orphanage, her eighteenth year at a psychiatric hospital, her twenties as a young married mother. She experienced violence and prejudice but never backed down from what would become her life’s work.

After HMI, Dr. Hunter moved onto serve as a Research Scientist at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University and is a member of the Global Community Core. She is also Principal Investigator of the Working It Out Project, a community-based HIV prevention research project for gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents that utilizes an award-winning video and an intervention curriculum. Dr. Hunter co-developed this program with community members, addresses coming out, stigma, development of coping strategies to address stressful life events, and personal identity development.

Dr. Hunter has established herself as a trailblazing activist, co-coordinating the first National Lesbian and Gay March on Washington in 1979. Throughout the years, she has served as the Human Rights Commissioner of NYC, as well as leadership on many Boards. She is an invited member of the HGO/HIV committee at the United Nations where she contributes to policy papers and UN parallel events, presenting on HIV/AIDS and prevention issues. She is also a former member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society (IAS), and is a founder of the IAS Women’s Caucus. Dr. Hunter was previously Co-Chair of Global AIDS Action Network (GAAN), and President of the National Lesbian and Gay Health Association and Conference Co-Chair of its annual conferences.

Dr. Hunter continues to travel the world advocating for women’s rights and LGBTQIA+ issues; providing training, publishing articles, and yet always making time to check in with the many young people who benefited from her mentor-ship at HMI. There is a generation of LGBTQIA+ leaders that are here because of her.

In March 2018, HMI established the Dr. Joyce Hunter Living Legacy Fund as a way to truly honor the impact that she has had on queer young people. This fund ensures that Dr. Hunter’s legacy lives on by ensuring young women at HMI continue to have access to safe education, health care, job readiness training, mental health, and a caring and compassionate network of adults to guide them along the way.

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Dr. Lance T. McCready worked as the Drop-In Center Assistant Coordinator at HMI under the direction of Pamela Sneed from January 1991 to July 1992. Today, Lance T. McCready, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and Director of the Transitional Year Programme at University of Toronto. His research explores education, health and the well-being of Black children, youth and adults in urban communities and schools.

Dr. McCready is the author of Making Space for Diverse Masculinities published by Peter Lang and is Principal Investigator of the Black Student University Access Network and Restorative Justice African, Caribbean, Black Family Group Conferencing Project. He is the 2018 recipient of the Distinguished Research Scholar Award from the Ontario Education Research Symposium and 2017 recipient of the Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize.

Prior to his post at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Dr. McCready was an Associate Professor in the Department of International and Multicultural Education at University of San Francisco where he taught courses on qualitative research, critical race theory, urban education and LGBTQ studies.

He also was Associate Professor of Urban Education at the University of Toronto, where he served as Co-Principal Investigator of the Many Men, Many Voices project at the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention in Toronto, and Principal Investigator of the Educational Trajectories of Young Black Men study in collaboration with the John Howard Society of Toronto. He was also a research consultant for Picasso’s Black Canvas, a verbatim theatre piece about the lives of young Black gay men in Toronto.

Dr. McCready was born in New York City, completed his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Carleton College and obtained his graduate degrees from University of California, Berkeley in social and cultural studies. He is recognized throughout the US and Canada as interdisciplinary scholar-activist whose research and writing focuses on the health, education and employment of marginalized and racialized youth, specifically young Black men and queer youth of color.

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