Dr. Ericka Burns
Founder and CEO
I started working to prevent the spread of HIV at the age of 15 by creating fundraisers and prevention messages for my peers. These experiences lead to my passion to promote and encourage youth advocacy with junior high, high school and college students. I began conducting research on the effectiveness of peer-to-peer interventions in 2009 and by 2011, I created a Youth Peer Educator HIV Training program. This program was created to effectively train youth on how to become risk-reduction counselors in both clinical and outreach settings and this was also a way to measure increased knowledge and healthy behavior changes of the Youth Peer Educators.
Since 2011, I have continued to implement this program with my current Youth Peer Educators. Through this experience, I have had the opportunity to work with youth from all walks of life. I have spent most of my outreach efforts focusing on youth, including youth of color and queer youth. They are the voices we need to make changes in our community and I seek to create more young leaders to advocate for themselves and their health.
In 2013, I founded Sacramento Peers on Prevention (SacPOP) and became a recognized non-profit organization in 2015! SacPOP was created to promote prevention messages through social media and to provide educational presentations to youth aged 13-24.
In 2021, I earned my Ph.D. in Human Sexuality at the California Institute of Integral Studies. My dissertation titled, I’m not coming out; you’re just coming in: Examining Black sexual identity formation in sexual fluidity research investigated how Black queer and non-queer identifying people use language to identify their sexuality through capturing sexual histories and perceptions of media depictions of Black sexuality via semi-structured interviews.
Future research will focus on Black sexual identity formation, reproductive justice, sexual pleasure, and sexuality education advocacy. Along with teaching, I aim to make systemic changes to sex education through advocacy as well as supporting anti-racist, inclusive, and pleasure-informed sex ed.
Learn more about me: ErickaBurns.com
Kathreen “Nica” Daria, MPH
Program Development Associate
Kathreen Daria is currently developing an ecosystem that allows multisector collaboratives to more effectively promote healthy, equitable communities across the United States. She has also advocated for improving global sexual and reproductive health the last 4+ years by championing increased investment in biomedical technologies that can reduce HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unintended pregnancy. Most recently, she was involved in research that crossed curiosities around the impact of environmental factors on reproductive health.
Kathreen aims to address public health issues that impact marginalized youth utilizing socially just approaches to ensure that young people have equitable access to health services and resources—particularly in the prevention of HIV, other STIs, and unintended pregnancies.
She holds a Master in Public Health from the University of San Francisco. Her work as a Peer Educator with the Sacramento Peers on Prevention earned her USF’s ‘Social Justice Award’ for the “Change Starts With Us” multimedia campaign, which promotes comprehensive sexual education across California. Kathreen also has a Bachelor's in Public Health Policy from the University of California, Irvine.
Board of Directors
Ericka Burns, Manjot Multani, Linda Streeter, Kathreen Daria, Tara Stowbunenko, Astin Williams, and Brianna Cunningham