David L Givens

Contributions to Public Health

My training and research is grounded in the Medical Humanities field, particularly in areas that intersect with HIV and health disparities. With over a decade of experience in HIV Planning and community engagement, my current work:

• Leads equitable, human-centered community engagement and HIV Planning for the HIV Prevention and Care Project and our funders in the PA Dept. of Health. I helped develop HIV integration in PA and have been an author on every version of Pennsylvania’s Integrated HIV Prevention and Care Plan.  
• Facilitates quantitative and qualitative assessment and engagement with the statewide HIV Planning Group. I oversee a team supporting multiple statewide workgroups and subcommittees that work in areas such as reducing stigma, advancing community resiliency (i.e. areas like Aging and Disability or Employment for PLWH), and monitor both preventative and clinical HIV outcomes and planning advancement.
• Teaches about public health communication and historic and contemporary health issues and equity. I also lecture on vaccine hesitancy and misinformation in public health as well as holistic/integrative health issues.
• Supports public health program implementation and dissemination across multiple subfields and modalities, such as my work with the Elias Lab evaluating Community Health Workers use of Photovoice to improve training outcomes. 
• Supports interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations. This is as exemplified by my work with publications on HIV and sexual health research in Vietnam and my ongoing membership in UNESCO’s Inclusive Policy Lab addressing health disparities around the world.