Louis Shackelford, MPH

Louis Shackelford (“Lou” or “Shack”) is a public health advocate who balances a civilian job at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center with a position as a medic in the US Air Force Reserve. At Fred Hutch, Louis is an External Relations Project Manager for the HVTN/CoVPN. “HVTN” is the HIV Vaccine Trials Network and “CoVPN” is the COVID-19 Prevention Network. In this role, Louis explained that his work is focused on community involvement in clinical trials and research education; “increasing knowledge and visibility of HIV and COVID-19 vaccine clinical research, especially in populations that are medically underserved, such as Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and other people of color.” He also serves as an Aerospace Medical Technician in the US Air Force Reserve at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Milestones along Louis’ educational pathway include:

• Undergraduate: Bachelors of Arts (BA) in Political Science and Government, Columbia University

• Basic Military Training: Honor Graduate, US Air Force Basic Military Training, US Air Force Reserve

• Military Technical Training: Honor Graduate, Aerospace Medical Service Apprentice, US Air Force Technical School, US Air Force Reserve

• Graduate School: Master of Public Health (MPH), Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

As a child, Louis grew up in public housing in Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City. He was raised by his mother, who worked as a 911 operator and later as a telephone customer service representative for a company that sells Broadway show tickets. He was estranged from his father throughout most of his childhood. As a child, Louis didn’t have a strong sense of what he wanted to do as an adult. In school, Louis reflected, “I had an affinity for math and science early on,” however as a kid, “my neighborhood sorely lacked examples/role models of what math and science careers could be.”

He took a chance and applied for a job that led him to where he is today. Louis studied Political Science and Government at Columbia University in New York City, however he was unsure what he wanted to do for a career. Louis explained, “I had no real clue what I wanted to do in life, I just knew I wanted to help people.” He remembered feeling “extremely lost and aimless.” However, with no previous exposure to the field of public health, he didn’t realize that his desire to help people could be leveraged into this type of career. He took a chance and applied to be a peer educator for a HIV prevention research study at Columbia University Medical Center. Louis explained, “the study was an HIV behavioral intervention conducted at a newly formed research site called the Harlem Prevention Center (HPC), based in the middle of the community I grew up in.” This meant working with people from his own neighborhood. He explained, “what I lacked in HIV research experience, I made up for with my passion for my community, love for science, and identification with the study population.” This peer educator job was Louis’ introduction into the field of public health, and as he explained, it launched his career. “The study team at HPC took a chance and hired me, and I pledged that they would never regret it,” he said.

A burning passion for community launched and shaped his career. Louis reflected that, “it is important for people interested in my line of work to understand that the greatest credential I possess is my passion for community.” He explained that when he started working in HIV clinical research nearly 13 years ago at HPC, “all I had was a burning passion to help my community.” Louis explained that as a peer educator at HPC, he “benefited greatly from understanding the privileges in my life compared to the study participants I served" and therefore he "resigned to listen and learn more than asserting myself and my abilities.” Overtime, Louis learned how to form “mutually beneficial relationships that created space for participants and community members to actualize and empower themselves with my support.” Louis’ work at Fred Hutch in External Relations leverages that experience and is deeply based on developing relationships and serving his community.

At Fred Hutch, Louis’ day-to-day activities include “contacting community stakeholders and organizations to develop new partnerships, managing existing community partnerships, developing HIV and COVID-19 educational events, and serving as an ambassador of the HVTN and CoVPN in various meetings, community forums, and speaking engagements,” he explained.

Although Fred Hutch is known for its cancer research, infectious disease research is also a priority area. Louis explained that “Fred Hutch is an institution dedicated to the elimination of human suffering” and “HIV has caused as much or more suffering as any form of known disease including cancer.” He also reflected on how scientific advances to treat and cure diseases like cancer “do not exist in a vacuum.” As an example, Louis noted that “AZT, the first drug that showed promise in treating HIV, was a failed cancer treatment medication.” He also explained that “the clinical trials that gave us COVID-19 vaccines used the infrastructure of HIV vaccine and prevention clinical trials built up over decades.”

Fighting systemic racism in medical research is part of his job. Louis explained that “systemic racism, patriarchal dominance, and their historical impact persist as the biggest challenges in my work” with the HVTN and CoVPN. This is because systemic racism has excluded people of color – especially Black, Hispanic, and Native American communities – from participating in medical research for decades and these groups “have also endured numerous medical atrocities from generation to generation, creating an understandable distrust of clinical research and research institutions,” he explained. Louis also asserted that “patriarchal dominance is pervasive throughout society, including in medical settings, perpetuating sexism, homophobia, and transphobia in research.” In his work to increase equitable participation in clinical trials and to build trust in COVID-19 vaccines, Louis shared that “the purpose of my work is to directly push back against these negative forces to create equity in HVTN and CoVPN research.”

His advice for high school students? Find what it is that you are passionate about and let that lead your way. Louis reflected that his own career journey was directed by his passion and sincere love for his community. He had this anecdote to share:

“I remember being jobless in my early 20s in Harlem and, sensing my frustration with life at the time, a friend asked what kind of job I wanted. Being the New Yorker I was, I told them honestly and bluntly: 'I don’t know, I just want to help people.' Those words echo through my life to this day as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Yet, that prophecy can be applied to anyone just as much as it can be applied to me. If you have a passion for your community and desire to help others, there is a place for you in clinical research. The field has opened opportunities for me to be ‘the first’ in many areas of my life, but I hope the only time I am last at anything in this field is when HIV and COVID-19 are no more.”

You can find him out for a run. Running is a meditative tool for de-stressing. Louis explained that he uses running “to teach myself mental toughness and endurance for trying times like the pandemic we are living through.” Louis noted that long runs also provide him with an opportunity to reflect on his life or listen to podcasts and audiobooks to learn new things.