#HEARTWORK

H.E.A.R.T. has very humble beginnings. When Dr. Joe accepted a faculty position at the University of Central Florida, she knew she wanted to focus on HIV/AIDS to address an identified gap in counseling research and training. She was pleasantly surprised when she learned that she had been assigned a graduate assistant who also had an interest in HIV/AIDS. Dr. Joe and (now) Dr. Nevin Heard met in the fall of 2015 and began sharing ideas about how to influence conversations about HIV at UCF, in Central Florida, and among counseling professionals nationally. They discussed research and outreach activities, but it was just the two of them. Soon another graduate student inquired about research opportunities and the three of them began meeting to analyze some data. Although still a small group, Dr. Joe felt like they needed a name and she came up with H.E.A.R.T. to communicate the compassion with which they would engage in education, awareness-raising, and research all focused on HIV/AIDS.