Kayla Emrick, M.P.H.

Kayla is a first-year PhD student in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health. She graduated from Emory University in 2018 with her master’s in public health in Behavioral Science and Health Education, where she focused on access, stigma, and health communications in the context of sexual and reproductive health.

Since graduating, Kayla has worked in HIV prevention and program implementation in various contexts. After graduating from Emory, she worked with Dr. Jeb Jones at Emory’s PRISM Health lab (Programs, Research, and Innovation in Sexual Minority Health), studying behavioral interventions for HIV prevention among transmasculine adults and young queer cisgender men. Following her time at Emory, Kayla worked with the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH), where she implemented HIV programs at clinics serving Native communities across the country. Most recently, she worked as an HIV researcher and capacity building educator with the University of Pittsburgh’s HIV Prevention and Care Project (HPCP).

Kayla is interested in mixed-method approaches to sexual health stigma interventions, with a focus on sexual health behavioral influences, communities disproportionately affected by HIV, and social media’s role in HIV and STI stigma.