Gregg Gonsalves (born October 21, 1963) is a global health activist, an epidemiologist, an associate professor at

Yale School of Public Health The Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) was founded in 1915 by Charles-Edward Amory Winslow and is one of the oldest public health masters programs in the United States. It is consistently rated among the best schools of public health in the co ...

and an associate professor (adjunct) at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

. As well as being co-director of Yale Law School's Global Health Justice Partnership, Gonsalves is the public health correspondent of the progressive magazine ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

''.

Early life

He was born in

Mineola, New York Mineola is a village in and the county seat of Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 18,799 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from an Algonquin Chief, Miniolagamika, which means "pleasant village". ...

, on October 21, 1963, grew up in nearby

East Meadow, New York East Meadow is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York. The population was 38,132 at the 2010 census. Many residents commute to Manhattan, which is away. History In 1 ...

, and attended

East Meadow High School East Meadow High School is a public high school in the East Meadow Union Free School District in East Meadow, New York. The school was founded in 1953 and serves students in grades 9−12. School As of the 2018–19 school year, the school ...

. His parents were New York City school teachers, both of whom were born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York, with his father's family originally from Madeira and his mother's family from

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. He attended

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

starting in 1981, but dropped out before finishing his BA degree in English and American literature and Russian language and literature. He has two sisters, Carin Gonsalves, a physician in Philadelphia, and Dana Gonsalves, a commercial artist in New York City.

Career

He began working with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power ( ACT UP) in 1990, going on to co-found the

Treatment Action Group Treatment Action Group (TAG) is a U.S.-based organization that has been prominent within the movement of HIV/AIDS activism. Being formed in 1991, it has possessed the goals of working with worldwide efforts to increase research on treatments for ...

(TAG) in 1992, with his colleagues from the Treatment and Data Committee of ACT UP New York, including

Peter Staley Peter Staley (born January 9, 1961) is an American political activist, known primarily for his work in HIV/AIDS activism. As an early and influential member of ACT UP, New York, he founded both the Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the educatio ...

, Mark Harrington, and Spencer Cox. With TAG, he authored several reports on HIV research, including a critical review of AIDS research at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

, which led to a reorganization of the NIH's AIDS program by Congress. He found out he was HIV+ in 1995. In 2000, Gonsalves went on to join

Gay Men's Health Crisis The GMHC (formerly Gay Men's Health Crisis) is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected." His ...

and its Department of Public Policy. In 2006, Gonsalves moved to

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

to work for th
AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa
where he was part of campaigns to expand access to antiretroviral therapy in Southern Africa. In the mid-2000s, he gave well-regarded plenary speeches at two back-to-back

International AIDS Conferences The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the world's largest association of HIV/AIDS professionals, with 11,600 members from over 170 countries , including clinicians, people living with HIV, service providers, policy makers and others. It aims to r ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

. He is also a co-founder of th
International Treatment Preparedness Coalition
a collective of AIDS activists from around the world fighting for access to AIDS treatment and other life-saving medicines through education, monitoring and advocacy. In 2008, he received $100,000 as the first recipient of the AIDS Leadership Award from the John M. Lloyd Foundation. In 2008, he enrolled in

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

as part of the Eli Whitney Students Program and obtained a BS with distinction in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2011. From 2011 to 2012, he was an Open Society Foundations Fellow comparing social movements on AIDS,

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

and maternal health in South Africa, Brazil and Ukraine. In 2012, he enrolled in a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

program in the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at

and

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences The Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is the graduate school of Yale University. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest graduate school in North America, and was the first North American graduate school to confer a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D ...

obtaining a PhD in 2017, where he also co-founded the Yale Global Health Justice Partnership, the first collaboration between the public health and law schools at Yale. He writes regularly for the popular press and has contributed op-eds and articles to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', '' Foreign Policy'' and ''

''. He joined the faculty of Yale School of Public Health in July 2017. His research focuses on using quantitative models to improve the delivery of services and shape policy-making on HIV/AIDS. At Yale, he is affiliated with th
Public Health Modeling Unit
and th
Yale Program in Addiction Medicine
In 2019, he received an ''Avenir'' award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a grant program devoted "to early-stage investigators who propose highly innovative studies ndresearchers who represent the future of addiction science" for his proposal to examine the syndemic of HIV, hepatitis C and overdose in the context of the US

opioid crisis The opioid epidemic, also referred to as the opioid crisis, is the rapid increase in the overuse, misuse/abuse, and Drug overdose, overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs opiates/opioids since the 1990s. It in ...

Awards and honors

In 2008, he won the John M. Lloyd Foundation's inaugural AIDS Leadership Award. Gonsalves and Mark Harrington are the only two AIDS activists to ever receive a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

, commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant". The two worked together and were members of ACT UP and TAG.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonsalves, Gregg 1963 births Living people Members of ACT UP People with HIV/AIDS American health activists MacArthur Fellows 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists Yale University faculty Yale College alumni Gay academics Gay scientists LGBT people from New York (state) American people of Italian descent American people of Portuguese descent American LGBT scientists Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Yale School of Public Health alumni East Meadow High School alumni

Early life

Career

Awards and honors

See also

References