Carlos A. O. Pavão

Carlos A. O. Pavão is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Undergraduate Program at the Georgia State University School of Public Health and Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

He has more than 20 years of public health practitioner experience both at the local and national levels. Throughout his career, he has focused on the nexus between dissemination research and innovative public health programming, specifically for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and linguistic minority populations. He has been mentored by many professionals and believes in the power or mentorship and fostering the next generation of public health professionals.

Dr. Pavão started his public health career a as community organizer in HIV prevention and operated several tobacco control and substance use community coalitions. In the 1990s, he developed three community-based adolescent health programs to educate sexual minority youth on healthy relationships, suicide prevention, HIV/STD prevention, and teen pregnancy. One of these youth programs was recognized by Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards in an article published in 2000 — “Massachusetts Groups Help Gay Teens Cope”. This newspaper article explored the complexities of what it means to be a gay youth of color.

Prior to embarking on his doctoral degree, he worked for 10 years on a national SAMHSA technical assistance grant to provide trainings and strategic technical assistance to Single State Agencies (including Caribbean territories and Tribes) on public health planning and implementation, capacity building, sustainability planning, and evaluation. He has also worked for the DeKalb County Board of Health, building community school partnerships with the Mayor’s Office of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and several nonprofits.

In 2000 he was appointed by the Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift (and served under Governor Mitt Romney) to serve to the Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. He is a past AVAC’s PxROAR (Prevention Research, Outreach, Advocacy and Representation) HIV Advocacy Fellow. In 2007, he was selected by Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to serve a four-year appointment on Director’s Council of Public Representatives (COPR) – and served under three NIH Directors.

As a practitioner he has secured $2.5 million in various grants: HIV, tobacco control, substance abuse prevention, and adolescent programming. He has been contracted as an evaluator on various grants ($1.5 million) and a variety of topics: HIV and teen pregnancy with Ambassadors for Christ in Houston, a CDC HIV grant with NashvilleCARES, and several health access project with Aniz, Inc. in Atlanta. As Principal Investigator, he just completed two community based research projects looking at health access with bisexuals and transgender communities in Atlanta.