Dr. Ulysses W. Burley III is the founder of UBtheCURE LLC, a consulting company on the intersection of Faith, Health, and Human Rights. A native of Houston, Texas, Ulysses studied Biology and Spanish at Morehouse College and Medicine and Public Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine where he went on to train in Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. Ulysses then served as Program Director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Strategy on HIV/AIDS, as well as Director of HIV/AIDS Programs at Heights Pharmacy. Currently, Ulysses is the Project Director for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) Faith Initiative to connect with diverse faith communities to share evidence-based information regarding HIV and vaccines and antibodies being developed for its prevention.

Although his primary training is in Immunology and Cancer Epidemiology, Ulysses is dedicated to a vocation of social justice advocacy through faith and community-based initiatives. His primary work has been around HIV and AIDS awareness, advocacy, and capacity building, but also includes LGBTQIA+, gender and racial justice, and peace in the Holy Land. He has been a guest at both the White House and United Nations for consultations on the intersections of faith and HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health rights, racial justice, and global drug reform.

Ulysses formerly served as a member of the United States Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) appointed by the Obama Administration, and made international headlines when he and 5 other members of PACHA resigned under the Trump Administration. Ulysses has also been recognized by the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) as a top 40 under 40 Minority Health Leader for his work in faith and HIV in communities of color and has since served on the NMQF Advisory Board. Ulysses’ other board memberships include RAHMA, a 501c3 organization that addresses HIV/AIDS in faith communities through education, advocacy, and empowerment; Community Renewal Society, a 138-year-old faith-based organization that works with communities to address issues of racism and poverty; and Advocate Health Care of Illinois.

Ulysses previously served on the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), a fellowship of 350 member churches that together represent more than half a billion Christians around the world. He was the Chair of the Global Organizing Committee for faith events sponsored by the WCC at the International AIDS Society’s (IAS) International AIDS Conference in 2016 and 2018 and was awarded the inaugural IAS Educational Fund Scholarship in 2016. Ulysses is the recipient of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) Public Service Award for 2018, and the International Conference on Stigma “Stigma Warrior” Award for 2021, and he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at his alma-mater, Morehouse College, in 2019.

Ulysses is an award-winning columnist at The Christian Recorder, the official newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and the oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the United States. He is a proud member of St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church of Chicago where he serves as a Lay Minister. When Ulysses is not working or traveling, he enjoys spending quality time with his wife and 2 daughters.

Ulysses’ personal mantra is “We all used to be somebody else — what’s most important is that we’re always working to be better today than we were yesterday.” His professional mantra is to: “Treat people, and not just disease.”