Carlos A. O. Pavão

Doctor of Public Health, Texas A&M University, 2019
Masters of Public Administration, Bridgewater State University, 2005
B.A. in History and Anthropology, Brandeis University, 1993

Intersections of HIV/AIDS, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health
Program Evaluation
Community Based Research
Health Systems and Policy Analysis
Sexual Health
Gender and Sexual Minorities
Immigrant Health and Health Disparities, especially with Lusophone communities

Carlos A. O. Pavão is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Undergraduate Program at the Georgia State University School of Public Health.

He has more than 25 years of public health practitioner experience 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 gender and sexual minorities and linguistic minority populations. He has been mentored by many professionals and believes in the power of mentorship and fostering the next generation of public health professionals.

Dr. Pavão started his public health career as a community organizer in HIV/AIDS prevention and operated several community coalitions for tobacco control and substance use. In the 1990s, he developed three community-based adolescent health programs to educate sexual and gender minority youth on healthy relationships, suicide prevention, HIV/STD prevention, and teen pregnancy.

Before his doctoral degree, he worked for ten years on a national SAMHSA technical assistance grant to provide training 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 2007, he was selected by Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to serve a four-year appointment on the Director’s Council of Public Representatives (COPR) – and served under three NIH Directors. He is also the recipient of the 2020 GSU School of Public Health Excellence in Mentorship Award.

As a practitioner, he has secured $2.5 million in various grants: HIV/AIDS, tobacco control, substance abuse prevention, and adolescent programming. He has been an evaluator on various grants ($1.5 million) and various topics: HIV and teen pregnancy with Ambassadors for Christ in Houston, a CDC HIV grant with NashvilleCARES, and several health access projects with Aniz Inc. in Atlanta.