Dr. Cynthia Gómez

For National HIV Awareness Day, it is fitting to recognize clinical psychologist and trailblazer Dr. Cynthhia Gomez, whose fight for health equity and HIV awareness has helped transform public health practices for the most marginalized. A third-generation lesbian Mexican American, whose childhood was spent in Ecuador and Puerto Rico, she is a graduate of Boston University and Harvard with a PH.D in Clinical Psychology from BU. Her resume includes 12 years working in clinical health settings in the Boston area and more than 20 years as a health policy advisor, including two Presidential Advisory Councils on HIV/AIDS. Gomez co-founded the Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University and is Professor Emerita at the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center at Boston’s Fenway Institute. Dr. Gomez has an unwavering belief that health care must use a holistic approach that views people as whole beings, shaped by history, society, identity, and systemic injustices. Her emphasis on visibility, inclusion and justice has benefitted women, communities of color and LGBTQIA+  people throughout the world.