A Study of the Lack of HIV/AIDS Awareness Among African American Women: a Leadership Perspective ─ Awareness That All Cultures Should Know About

I wrote this dissertation for the School of Advanced Studies at University of Phoenix, Arizona, in 2011. To do the research for the dissertation, I spent quite a bit of time at the Center of Disease Control and Prevention archives as a graduate student. I also interviewed medical doctors and others who knew about the subject matter. Since I wrote this dissertation, there has been more research published that I will continue to research and add to my archival collection. The issues of this dissertation were discussed as the emergent theoretical model and its components, which included implications of research, practice, stigma, burden, advocacy, and awareness. Leadership, education, and community resources were the dominant themes that emerged in the study. The study findings imply an increased need for leaders to present public awareness about the affects HIV/AIDS has on the African American community. Future research should consider the explicit nature of the answers, which benefited the study. The information would be helpful while improving the quality of life available for African American women and would enable leaders to interact with a leadership perspective (USAID, 2009).