Emily Arnold

Emily Arnold, PhD is an Associate Professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, specializing in HIV prevention and health disparities research. With a focus on intersections between culture, gender, sexuality, and health behavior, she has developed community-based interventions like the Bruthas Project for African American men who have sex with men/women, and explores social networks in the ballroom community to address HIV risks among marginalized populations.

• PhD in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University
• Postdoctoral training at UCSF
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training

Her research spans qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to understand social support systems, harm reduction practices, and policy impacts like Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act. Recent work examines climate disaster effects on HIV care, transgender health, and substance use intersections.

Key publication trends include: HIV prevention (ballroom community interventions, PrEP scale-up), policy analysis (insurance access, Medicaid), and implementation science (medical-legal partnerships, drug checking services). She also contributes to health misinformation countermeasures for Spanish-speaking communities.

• NIMH R01 grant for Bruthas Project
• NIH/NIMH R25MH067127 training grant
• NIH P20MD019994 ECO-Health Center
• K01MH077489 award

As a mentor in the CAPS Visiting Professors program, she fosters diverse scholar pipelines. Her work bridges ethnography, quantitative analysis, and community collaboration to address structural inequities.