Arantxa Bonifaz
Arantxa Bonifaz (She/her), based in Washington D.C., is a public health researcher passionate about utilizing data analytics to advance social and health equity, informed decision-making, and improved health outcomes. During her time at Emory University, where she received her bachelor’s degree, she collaborated with several faculty at the Rollins School of Public Health on various research areas including nutrition, program evaluation, and WASH.
As a Latino SHARE scholar at the George Washington University, Arantxa engaged with HIV and AIDS research through lectures, conferences, and workshops. Under the mentorship of GWU faculty, she conducted a research project on leveraging social networks to promote pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) awareness and uptake among female sex workers in the Dominican Republic. Upon the completion of this internship and her research project, she realized a newfound passion for HIV and AIDS research. She is particularly interested in addressing and mitigating disparities in HIV awareness, prevention, and treatment based on occupation, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and gender. Most importantly, this experience served as a reminder that HIV is preventable and can be eradicated through effective and accessible prevention strategies and treatment. With this in mind, as a research associate at FCAA, Arantxa is committed to ending the HIV epidemic by advocating for equitable resource allocation and employing resource tracking to inform and enhance philanthropic efforts.