Kamina Ballard, began her career in 1996 volunteering at Camp Hope which is a worry-free weekend retreat for children living with HIV and their entire family under the umbrella of Project ARK, a HIV/AIDS service organization dedicated to support the needs of women, children and youth impacted by HIV/AIDS. From this volunteer opportunity, Kamina became an outreach specialist at Project ARK where she provided HI/STI education, testing and counseling, and provided condom outreach. She went on to be a Disease Intervention Specialist/Public Health Representative with the City of St. Louis Department of Health in 2004 then later the Community Planner until 2019. Kamina became the Education Supervisor at Planned Parenthood until joining the St. Louis Prevention Training Center at Washington University School Medicine in 2020 where she is the Community Liaison Manager at the St. Louis STI/HIV Prevention Training Center at Washington University.
Through her wide variety of one-on-one talks, community-based experiences, the several HIV committees she’s on and the 2 advisory and evaluation boards she sits on Kamina has developed many diverse community relationships, both academically and professionally to help support community engagement of HIV/STI basics including testing and screenings, LGBTQ health and advocacy, positive sexual health practices leading to advocacy and promotion of equitable health among women of color that are disproportionately impacted by the health disparities in the St. Louis Metropolitan area.
Objectives