Mission, Values & Vision

Even though the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been raging for 37 years, the need for awareness, education, and research remains critically important. While there are outstanding NIH-funded educational programs aimed at training levels at the PhD and early career faculty levels, fewer target the pipeline at the undergraduate stage. By exposing highly motivated undergraduate students, particularly those that reside in high HIV-1 incidence/prevalence regions, to an education-research mentoring institute focused on neuroHIV and its associated comorbidities, there will be a significant increase in retention of students in the biomedical training pipeline in this field.

Our mission is to expose highly motivated undergraduates, particularly those that reside in high HIV-1 incidence/prevalence regions, to an education-research mentoring institute focused on NeuroHIV and its associated comorbidities in order to serve those urban and rural communities most affected by the diseases.

We seek to strengthen our workforce focused on research and clinical care at the interface of HIV-neurologic dysfunction and associated comorbidities.