Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow: How to Support Underrepresented Undergraduate HIV Researchers Today From the Voices of Emerging Leaders

Abstract

Undergraduate, underrepresented minority (URM) scholars must be comprehensively supported by the current HIV workforce to lead the future of HIV research. This commentary elaborates on the lived experience and outcomes of alumni from an undergraduate HIV research program and is written by alumni themselves. Undergraduate research enrichment programs for URM scholars are consistently deprioritized, underfunded, underresourced, and scrutinized. We seek to remind our audience of the outstanding contributions made to HIV and public health by URM scholars from these programs, such as the Student Opportunities for AIDS/HIV Research (SOAR) program. SOAR students and alumni report 95% placement in Masters, Doctoral, and Professional graduate programs, 100 conference presentations, and 34 publications within 3 years of the program's onset. Ultimately, this commentary speaks to the necessity of not only supporting URM researchers but also having a sustainable succession plan for advancing HIV research and programming. We recommend incorporating (a) critical health equity curriculum, (b) multidirectional mentorship, and (c) paid labor, which are crucial to tailor to URM scholars for their success and retention in research. Waiting to support the next generation of HIV researchers denies the urgency to respond to this intersectional public health issue—inaction is not an option.

The HIV epidemic in the United States is persistent. While infections are trending downward by 12% overall as of the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, ¹ there remain over 30,000 new HIV diagnoses each year, and transmission rates are elevated among populations oppressed by racism, heterosexism, sexism, and other systems of power. ¹ Notably, between 2018 and 2022, new HIV diagnoses increased 42% among Hispanic transgender populations, ¹ 32% among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander sexual minority men, ¹ and remain stably elevated among Black women, ² which signifies the stark differences in how intersectional populations are experiencing the epidemic. The HIV research landscape is undergoing massive restructuring and defunding domestically and globally, from basic science to program implementation to health policy. ³ Now is the moment to resist these changes and support the next generation of HIV research. As emerging HIV researchers ourselves, we propose guidance on how to do so in this commentary.

The Student Opportunities for AIDS/HIV Research (SOAR) program operates at the University of Michigan as a National Institute of Mental Health funded 5-year program (NIMH No. 1R25MH126703-01) created to (a) implement a comprehensive, multicomponent, theory-driven HIV research education and faculty-researcher mentored 2-year experience for underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate students (see Figure 1), (b) support URM undergraduate students in pursuing career paths as independent researchers focused on the mental health aspects of HIV/AIDS, and (c) to offer evidence-based, culturally responsive mentor training for faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students who serve as peer mentors. ⁵ In March 2025, the principal investigators were notified that SOAR's NIMH grant was terminated in the sweep of federal grants suspected under implementation of Executive Order No. 14151 (2025), ⁶ which mandated the termination of “all mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities relating to ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.’” As scholars in the first cohort of the program, we discuss SOAR to shed light on how other institutions and organizations can support diverse cohorts of researchers, arguing the essential nature of these undergraduate program types, especially for ending the HIV epidemic. This commentary comes at a time of necessity when researchers at all levels are losing grants, ⁶ jobs, and the ability to drive scholarship behind HIV advancements. A new generation representing the populations burdened by the epidemic must take the helm of what the future of HIV research should look like, now more than ever.

Figure 1.

National Institutes of Health Underrepresented Minority Criteria in Medicine/Biomedical Research (n.d.; Adapted from University of California, Davis). ⁴

Who Are We?

Evan Hall is a Master of Public Health graduate of The University of British Columbia with extensive experience in policy and advocacy, along with research on improving access to HIV prevention and treatment at the local, state, national, and international levels. Evan is a White nonbinary person who is impacted by the HIV epidemic and is steadfast in their work to dismantle oppressive and racist systems of health in the U.S. and globally.

Myla Lyons is a Black, queer ciswoman and is a doctoral student of Applied Social Psychology at The George Washington University. SOAR fortified her intersectional epistemic stance and leveraged her lived experience as an intentional component to her research process. She conducts international and U.S. research analyzing the relationship between structural and interpersonal discrimination, antiretroviral therapy medication adherence, and pre-exposure prophylaxis interest in Black sexual minority men and Black ciswomen (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Diagram of the Student Opportunities for AIDS/HIV Research (SOAR) Program Structure. Note. Please see https://soar.research.umich.edu/ for more information.

Critical Health Equity

The SOAR program required students to take a year-long course on critical health equity research at the intersection of HIV and public health. The class centered and discussed different approaches, including feminist, ⁷ critical race theory, ⁸ intersectional, ⁹ queer, ¹⁰ trans, ¹¹ and disability ¹² studies, among others, as essential lenses to existing public health frameworks. We critically applied these approaches to the HIV epidemic, interventions, and ourselves as growing HIV researchers. Specific assignments included writing about and presenting on HIV-related and health equity topics through policy briefs, poster presentations, and oral presentations. Our development as researchers and scholars was shaped through practicing reflexivity, ¹³ writing prompted and freestyled journaling exercises, discussing professionalism in academia, and publishing manuscripts. Furthermore, core aspects of the curriculum prepared us for graduate matriculation by supporting resume/curriculum vitae, cover letter, and personal statement development. We analyzed the impact of our social positionality on our interpretation of research articles and public health issues in a discussion-based setting as a foundational part of becoming ethical and rigorous researchers. These classroom discussions took place in a space intentionally devised for a diverse cohort of underrepresented students with lived experience.

The application for SOAR highly encouraged URM undergraduate students to apply, as previously outlined by the National Institutes of Health (Figure 1), which meant we were surrounded by a diversity of lived experiences in these discussions about social and structural barriers to HIV prevention, care, and health equity. Early HIV researchers need to be exposed to and supported by a group of diverse researchers to facilitate relevant conversations about their experiences, not only with research, but with physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being along the journey of becoming researchers. Endeavors such as this are significantly associated with graduation and matriculation to health-related graduate programs. ¹⁴ SOAR's blend of classroom curricula, engaged mentorship, and research opportunities aids students to interrogate systems, policies, and practices as drivers of HIV-related outcomes, ¹⁵ matriculate to graduate school, and produce high-impact research with 34 unique publications in journals with impact factors up to 5.9 as of June 2025 (see Supplemental Table S1 for full publication list).

Engaged Mentorship

Public health, higher education, and government leaders and researchers must prioritize mentorship for underrepresented minorities and create a network of facilitators to support these undergraduate students beyond the graduate application process and into their research careers. Barriers to URM scholars’ engagement in research are vast, and the exclusion of underrepresented researchers contributes to the perpetuation of the HIV epidemic. Successful mentorship is associated with mentees’ career satisfaction, increased publication output, and successful research grant procurements. ¹³ The effects of mentored research experiences are particularly significant for URM and first-generation students. ¹⁶ However, there remains a scarcity of mentorship programs designed specifically to support these URM researchers. ¹³ URM scholars tend to have greater difficulty obtaining mentorship and research experience. ¹⁷ We argue that URM, who are most affected by HIV inequities, ¹ contribute invaluable lived experiences that significantly advance and align scientific research to community priorities. By engaging URM scholars in mentored research that addresses their communities’ priorities, we not only support their career development but also produce research that is more nuanced, relevant, and impactful—the SOAR program designed and implemented the scaffolding of this work.

Implementing impactful and sustained mentorship for URM researchers requires intentionality that addresses structural and social barriers, which have excluded them in the first place from engaging in mentorship opportunities and research. Many mentors struggle to foster diversity in their mentor–mentee relationships. ¹⁸ The SOAR program's structure fills this gap by adapting an intersectional mentorship approach ¹³ that critically examines how power and privilege influence the mentor–mentee relationship, integrating reciprocal relations as the foundation of these engagements across the 2-year program and beyond. For example, the mentor–mentee contract codeveloped in the first semester of SOAR set out to reduce power imbalance and create plans in response to inevitable challenges that would arise. SOAR also advanced mentor–mentee relationships for URM researchers by adopting a multidirectional mentorship model of senior and junior faculty, near-peer mentors, and SOAR peer-based mentors,^19,20 which built on the considerations of instrumental, socioemotional, and culturally relevant factors of mentor–mentee pairs. ¹⁶ As scholars of SOAR, we can directly speak to the multidirectional mentorship model as pivotal in expanding our access to research opportunities, developing a research identity, and fostering a diverse generation of scholars. For the consideration of entry points for engaged mentorship, postdoctoral and early career training may provide immediate returns on investment, but a shift in and additional support of undergraduates will build a more diverse HIV research community necessary to end the HIV epidemic.

Paid Labor

Unpaid research opportunities are less feasible and equitable for students who require paid labor to support the concurrent costs of schooling and living. ²¹ Generational wealth among URM students is scarce, ²² which further widens the gap of opportunity for research. When URM enter the academy, they gain a far larger income potential compared to their parents and previous generations. This creates a dilemma on the means to save, invest, or spend this income on various competing priorities because some URM do not have funds that would otherwise be available to them through generational wealth and assets. Hence, we recommend that HIV research training programs, at a minimum, aim to financially compensate students beyond the living wage. Additionally, a level of financial education and literacy can be tied to fund disbursements to ensure students can optimize this new income flow. However, compensation cannot be connected with funds associated with one's financial aid to avoid stipulations and restrictions from FAFSA, as URM already have stringent access to financial aid. ²³ Although limited, anecdotal, and adjacent research has demonstrated how financial support to underrepresented students can benefit retention and graduation rates. ²⁴

Programs can frame funding requests as intellectual and economic investments in building a coalition of HIV researchers who are also members of populations impacted by HIV. Funding should aim to be diversified and sustainable. A commitment to fair and reasonable compensation is the starting point for a program to structure equitable benefits for URM students. The SOAR program represents that paid opportunity is a practical reality, not merely a possibility.

Conclusion

Our current political and social situation may be unprecedented, but it was not unpredictable. The federal government and Presidential administrations have and will continue to dictate how HIV should be perceived and funded, but the dynamics of HIV and the impacts on communities will persist outside of any political climate. Whether it is 4 years of no acknowledgment of the early AIDS crisis by Reagan or the slashing of HIV funding by Trump,^6,25 there is one undeniable truth—HIV is here and we must respond.

Inherent and emerging structural and social barriers in higher education shape who gains access to research opportunities, narrowing the diversity and contributions among the next generation of researchers on the mission of ending the HIV epidemic. To advance the field of HIV research and address persistent health inequities, it is essential to support diverse and underrepresented scholars from the earliest stages of their academic careers. Programs such as SOAR exemplify the transformative impact of providing comprehensive mentorship, critical health equity training, and financial support tailored to the unique challenges URM scholars face. Over the past 4 years, the SOAR program has cultivated 38 promising scholars with 95% placement in Masters, Doctoral, and Professional graduate programs, 100 conference presentations, and 34 unique publications with more forthcoming (Figure 3). By empowering emerging researchers with culturally responsive mentorship and an intersectional framework, SOAR fosters the development of scholars whose insights are shaped by their own lived experiences and a deep commitment to equity. The SOAR program should be a prominent, but not the only, example to inspire future programs to dedicate resources and funding to the next generation of HIV researchers. As emerging scholars ourselves, we cannot shy away from the incredible value to this collective cause—an end to the HIV epidemic.

Figure 3.

Student Opportunities for AIDS/HIV Research (SOAR) Program Outcomes. Note. This Figure is Based on 34 out of 38 Students and Alumni. Publications are Based on 38 Students as of July 2025.

Supplemental Material

sj-pdf-1-jia-10.1177_23259582251395779 - Supplemental material for Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow: How to Support Underrepresented Undergraduate HIV Researchers Today From the Voices of Emerging Leaders

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-jia-10.1177_23259582251395779 for Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow: How to Support Underrepresented Undergraduate HIV Researchers Today From the Voices of Emerging Leaders by Evan Hall and Myla Lyons in Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (JIAPAC)