WILLIAM BROWN III
William
Brown III received his BAs in Sociology and African American Studies from
UC Davis in 2004. At UC Davis William researched African American students¹
social ³survival² methods within predominately Caucasian institutions.
Simultaneously, as a McNair Scholars, he did an Internet content analysis
to assess the prevalence of racially discriminatory practices among members
of social websites and resulting mental health effects.
William went on to receive his MA in Human Sexuality Studies from San
Francisco State University in 2006. He interned as the community outreach
coordinator at the National Sexuality Resource Center in the Mission district
of San Francisco, where he connected with both community members and leaders
to disseminate information on sexual health and improving sexual health
outcomes. William also worked as a researcher at the Center on Research,
Gender, and Sexuality, now the ³Institute of Sexuality, Social Inequality,
and Health², where he studied the link between religion, HIV, and Homosexual
African American men¹s health. For his thesis he created a comprehensive
model of the racial identity processes in homosexual African American
men, which illustrated how health-behaviors of minorities of all ages
are impacted by cultural beliefs and racial-identity.
Currently, William works for Health Research for Action in the School
of Public Health at UC Berkeley, whose goal is to translate academic research
into helpful and community appropriate health literature. In his spare
time he is helping to develop a website with Internet Sexuality Information
Services (ISIS, Inc.) and SFDPH that will provide government-subsidized
HIV/STI testing vouchers so that all San Francisco residents can get tested
anywhere at no cost; in hopes to decrease racial and socio-economic disparities
in minority testing for HIV/STIs. Also, he lectures on how to develop,
prepare, and conduct online interviews on sensitive topics with minority
populations. Lastly, he is working on studies of minority adolescent sexual
health as a research assistant at the Public Health Institute.
At present, William has been accepted into the Doctorate in Public Health
Program at UC Berkeley, with which he aims to eliminate health disparities,
promote social justice, and utilize Internet technologies to advance health
education and outcomes among African American, Latino, and economically
disadvantaged youth.
