Steven W. Thrasher, PhD, CPT, holds the inaugural Daniel Renberg Chair of social justice at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, the first journalism professorship in the world to focus on LGBTQ+ issues. He is also a faculty member of Northwestern’s Institute of Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. Dr. Thrasher served as an advisor on HIV/AIDS policy for the 2020 presidential campaign for Senator Bernie Sanders and has worked with health departments around the world on HIV, Covid-19 and MPX prevention campaigns. Currently a columnist for Literary Hub, his writing has been widely published in the Guardian, Village Voice, Scientific American, New York Times, and in many other popular and academic journals. Dr. Thrasher is also the author of the award-winning debut book The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide(Celadon/Macmillan) and is currently writing his second book, The Overseer Class (Amistad/HarperCollins).