Dalmacio Dennis Flores, PhD, ACRN is an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, an affiliated faculty member at the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Program – The Alice Paul Center, and is a Visiting Professor at the Center for Research on AIDS at Yale University’s School of Public Health. He has led several studies that investigates the role of parents in the sexual health education of their adolescent sons who identify as gay, bisexual, and queer (GBQ). Through interventions around inclusive parent-child sex communication, he believes that the early provision of sexual health information attuned to the attractions, behavior, and identities of GBQ adolescents can reduce the formation of risky sexual behavior and this population’s risks for HIV and STI infection.
With an awareness of the personal and contextual factors that increase sexual minority populations’ vulnerability for HIV/STI infection and poor care-related outcomes, the first study Dr. Flores led investigated the conditions that contributed to the recent HIV infection of young gay men in Atlanta. That study has fueled his subsequent HIV prevention work that includes both urban and rural community education, being a national spokesperson for HIV testing campaigns, and workforce development with around 1,500 nurses across three continents. His commitment to HIV/AIDS care and leadership throughout his career includes serving in various leadership roles for the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.
Dr. Flores earned his PhD from Duke University, a Master’s in Public Health Nursing Leadership at Emory University, and a Bachelors in Nursing from Kennesaw State University in Georgia.