Dr. Paul Burns is an Assistant Professor in the John D. Bower School of Population Health at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Burns’ research focuses primarily on issues of HIV/AIDS, social and structural determinants of health and racial/ethnic disparities. His work examines the intersections between social/structural environment, health behavior and HIV-related outcomes to inform the development of innovative strategies to increase the uptake of HIV testing, linkage and retention in care among vulnerable populations (e.g. racial/ethnic, sexual, gender, and socioeconomic). Dr. Burns received his PhD in Public Health from the University of Michigan and completed a NIH/Fogarty Post-Doctoral Global Health Fellowship at University of Washington as well as post-doctoral training at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR)/Population Studies Center (PSC). Dr. Burns has an active research agenda including site P.I. on 2 multisite studies: 1) PRISM a NIH-funded study to develop evidence-based validated measures for intersectional structural stigma for Black MSM and 2) ACCELERATE! a ViiV Healthcare-funded, community-based initiative to increase access and uptake of HIV services among Black MSM in Jackson, MS and Baltimore, MD. Dr. Burns has worked as a consultant on USAID, CDC and WHO-funded projects in the area of HIV surveillance, prevention, care and treatment in South Africa, Malawi, Kenya and Angola.