HIV Vaccine Trials Network

Community is at the heart of HIV vaccine research.

In a recent conversation tied to our documentary Ending HIV: The Journey to a Vaccine, Jarissa Greenard shared why trust, transparency, representation, and informed choice are essential to advancing HIV prevention research.

Jarissa is a Community Educator and Recruiter at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center HIV Vaccine Program, one of the clinical research sites in the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN). Through her work, she helps connect communities with research, ensuring people have the information, support, and dignity they deserve when considering participation in HIV vaccine trials.

The conversation also highlights an important truth: scientific progress depends on community partnership. That means acknowledging medical mistrust, engaging communities with honesty and accountability, making research more inclusive, and ensuring the people most affected by HIV are represented in the studies designed to help prevent it.

As Jarissa reminds us, participation is not about blind faith; it is about informed choice, and every volunteer, educator, advocate, and community partner helps move HIV vaccine research forward.

“Community is not separate from the science. It is part of the science.”

Read more: https://aidsvu.org/news-updates/community-is-the-cure-a-conversation-about-hiv-vaccine-research-and-what-it-takes-to-get-there/



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