NMAC’s Center to End the HIV Epidemic is built upon decades of our capacity building expertise that strengthens organizational and individual leaders across the HIV movement. The Center is a national hub committed to advancing health equity by addressing the root causes of poor health outcomes through systems change, community power-building, and culturally grounded capacity-building approaches and technical training.
Center Mission: We work at the heart of public health transformation—Using storytelling, systems-thinking, and implementation science to reshape systems and advance health justice for communities with the poorest health outcomes.
Advancing Organizational Capacity to End the HIV Epidemic, Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
NMAC’s Center to End the Epidemic is proud to serve as a national capacity building partner through—Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) for High Impact HIV Prevention Program Integration— a project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under Component E: Organization/Workforce Development and Management for Community-Based Organizations.
Through this initiative, NMAC provides training and technical assistance to strengthen the organizational infrastructure and operational capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) on the front lines of making America healthier and addressing infectious and chronic diseases. The focus is on enhancing competencies in fiscal management, human resources, leadership development, and inclusive organizational strategies.
NMAC also leads the development and implementation of the National Learning Community for HIV CBO Leadership, a virtual peer-learning and capacity-building program designed for CDC directly and indirectly funded CBOs. This program supports the advancement of leadership and promotes continuous quality improvement in HIV prevention efforts and organizational sustainability. The overarching goal is to cultivate long-term resilience, expand leadership pipelines, and increase the effectiveness and impact of HIV prevention programs, especially within organizations led by and serving communities most disproportionately impacted by HIV.
The Center’s approach aims to equip CBOs with the tools, knowledge, and networks to address HIV not as an isolated issue, but as one shaped by complex and interconnected social, political, and economic forces. Using a syndemic framework, our team helps organizations build integrated strategies that respond to HIV alongside other structural and social determinants of health.
As part of our work on the CDC initiative, NMAC:
- Strengthens CBOs with leadership training, strategic planning, and governance for long-term HIV service effectiveness.
- Develop distance learning programs providing nationwide access to leadership development and enhancing CBOs’ capacity to address HIV in communities with the poorest health outcomes.
- Foster collaboration among CBO leaders through the National Learning Community, sharing best practices and strengthening HIV programs.
- Support continuous improvement through user acceptance testing, pilot implementation, and rigorous evaluation of all learning platforms and resources.
As part of this initiative, NMAC also coordinates a Community Advisory Board (CAB), which ensures that the perspectives of those most impacted by HIV shape our work
Convening Community Leaders
In March 2025, NMAC’s Center to End the Epidemic team convened with our CDC Component E Community Advisory Board members and Subject Matter Experts for an onboarding meeting.
During this session, we provided an overview of the cooperative agreement and outlined NMAC’s role within the CBA project. We also reviewed the roles and responsibilities of advisory board members and SMEs, discussed relevant policies and procedures, and facilitated a listening session to gather input on the upcoming work. The meeting concluded with team-building activities designed to foster collaboration and begin strategizing innovative approaches to fulfilling the project’s deliverables.