Ulysses W. Burley III is founder of UBtheCURE LLC, a consulting company on the intersection of 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 (FSM) 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 a Faith Community Engagement Ambassador for the Covid-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), to connect with faith communities of color in an effort to share the most current and factual information regarding COVID-19 and vaccines and antibodies being developed for its prevention.

Although his primary training is in medicine and public health, Ulysses is dedicated to a vocation of social justice advocacy through faith and community based initiatives. His primary work has been in the area of HIV and AIDS awareness, advocacy and capacity building, but also includes mass incarceration, LGBTQIA+, gender and racial justice, food security, and peace in the Middle East. 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 been named to the NMQF Advisory Board. Most recently Ulysses was named to the Board of Directors of RAHMA, a 501c3 organization that addresses HIV/AIDS in faith communities through education, advocacy, and empowerment.

Ulysses previously served on the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), a fellowship of 350 member churches who together represent more than half a billion Christians around the world. He was the chair of the Global Organizing Committee for faith events 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 was inducted into the 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College.

Ulysses is a speaker at Great Black Speakers Bureau, and an award winning columnist with published writings in medical science, advocacy, and social commentary. When Ulysses is not working or traveling, he serves St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church of Chicago as a Lay Minister.

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.”