Alicia Diggs is a transformative public health leader, educator, and advocate dedicated to empowering communities and dismantling the barriers that perpetuate stigma, inequity, and injustice. As the Manager for the Office of Community Engagement (OCE) at the University of North Carolina Center for AIDS Research (UNC CFAR), Alicia serves as a bridge between academia, research, and the communities most impacted by HIV. In this role, she leads collaborative initiatives, coordinates the Community Collaboration Board (CCB), and ensures that the Meaningful Involvement of People with Lived Experience (MIPA) remains central to research and policy decisions. Living unapologetically and thriving as a Black woman with HIV, Alicia uses her lived experience to center humanity in public health practice. Her leadership extends far beyond her title—she is a voice for equity, a mentor to emerging advocates, and a catalyst for systemic change. Through her most recent community events, Vision for Change, Alicia has mobilized communities across North Carolina and beyond through events such as Breaking Stigma, Fighting Criminalization, and Empowering Communities and Empowering Communities in NC through Community Engagement. These transformative gatherings have educated and empowered hundreds, building local leadership and fostering unity between researchers, policymakers, and people with lived experience. Alicia’s advocacy is grounded in both scholarship and empathy. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, a Master of Public Health, and has completed doctoral courses in Public Health. Her professional affiliations include past membership of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), past leadership in Black Treatment Advocates Network (BTAN), current member of the National HIV and Aging Advocacy Network (NHAAN), the REPRIEVE Publications Committee and Community Advisory Board, NC State Lead for the Positive Women’s Network (PWN-USA), U.S. PLHIV Caucus, MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study, and alumnae of SisterLove’s 2020 Leading Women’s Society. Through these roles, she continues to influence national dialogues on HIV prevention, care, and criminalization reform. As an author and creative entrepreneur, Alicia has cultivated spaces of healing and self-reflection through her autobiography Standing on My Healing: From Tainted to Chosen, and her journals, Still Waters: 30 Days of Scripture, Reflection, and Restoration and In Love with Myself: Finding Inner Peace and Acceptance Journal. Her writings weave faith, affirmation, and emotional restoration offering women, especially Black women living with HIV, tools to reconnect with themselves and their divine purpose. Alicia is also the visionary behind I Will Live and TeeLee Consulting, platforms that merge personal empowerment, leadership development, and community capacity-building. Her work is guided by compassion, integrity, and the belief that transformation begins when truth is spoken and people are seen. In every space she occupies whether on a national stage, in a community meeting, or through the pages of her journals Alicia Diggs stands as a living testament to resilience, faith, and the power of turning pain into purpose. Her life’s mission is simple yet profound: to educate, empower, and elevate communities until every voice is heard and every person has the freedom to live fully and authentically.