UC alumna commands federal HIV/AIDS care, breaks barriers for Black service members

Health was a common conversation topic in Hopson’s family, thanks to her father, a veterinarian, and her mother, a nurse and Hopson’s first nursing role model. One of Hopson’s earliest memories of her mother involves watching her administer polio vaccines to children while donning a white uniform and nursing cap in the early 1960s. During high school, Hopson experienced nursing firsthand when she volunteered as a candy striper (now called a junior volunteer) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Ultimately, the job security nursing provides and UC’s direct-admission program were what convinced Hopson to pursue a nursing career.

During her final year in the BSN program, a community health clinical rotation helped Hopson realize that she preferred public health to bedside nursing. Learning about the social determinants of health that prevent underserved populations from accessing care inspired her to want to work with low-income populations and someday open a community health clinic. After earning her BSN, she pursued a master's degree in public health at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also earned her PhD in health policy and management.

Rather than open a clinic, Hopson chose to work in health policy, broadening her impact on health care. Before joining MayaTech in 2018, she served as a senior health advisor to the administrator for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the primary federal agency responsible for improving access to health care services for uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable populations — which includes providing funding for community health clinics across the country. During the five years she held this role, Hopson provided guidance on national and global public health issues, programs, policies and initiatives with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS.

After dedicating 34 years to PHSCC, Hopson "retired" in 2018, taking only the summer off before joining MayaTech. She says she experienced a lot of highlights during her career, including becoming the first Black nurse to achieve the rank of Rear Admiral, an accomplishment achieved by less than 1% of all PHSCC officers.

"Once I became an admiral, I did not want to be the only African-American to achieve that rank, so I helped a lot of nurses, particularly African-American nurses, to achieve it," she says. "I can think of at least 10 of us who did, so I broke the glass ceiling, but I made sure it stayed broken."

Hopson retired from federal service to give others a chance to step in and bring new ideas to the agency. Although her new position is different from her last, she continues to impact lives both professionally and in her spare time. A resident of Silver Spring, Maryland, Hopson serves on the Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties’ Hospice Board of Directors, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Board of Directors and the American Baptist Churches International Ministries Board of Directors. She says she will officially retire when the time is right, but she is always open to another opportunity: "I'm very open to retiring and sitting down, but various opportunities come along, and we’ll see what happens."