Derek Dangerfield, PhD, doesn’t like to look too far down the road, though in some ways he’s been there. The East Baltimore native, who’s studied HIV and sexual inequities from Southeast Asia to South Africa to Southern California and now back to East Baltimore, won’t predict where the research is headed. He’ll know it when he arrives. 

“My vision is, I try not to have a vision,” says Dangerfield, who explains that he borrowed the approach of a mentor. “Just follow the needs of the epidemic, of the people. Your work will do the rest.”

[Read: Baltimore Connection -- Fix It There, Fix It Anywhere.]

So far, his journey has taken him from Baltimore City College to Georgetown University for a bachelor’s degree in sociology; to a Fulbright Scholarship to study risk behaviors of men who have sex with men in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; to the University of Southern California for a PhD; and to postdoctoral work in HIV prevention with Associate Professor Jason Farley, PhD, MPH, ANP-BC, and the REACH Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

Dangerfield still wears his high school ring, which is very Baltimore. “It’s the thing here,” he says, explaining that in Charm City, your high school of record tells other natives all they need—or even want—to know about you. And while on a late-winter day he was missing the Pacific Coast, that ring does let you know everything you need to about Dangerfield’s decision to come back home. 

“I’m really proud that I can do this work in a global setting, like, ‘Wow. You’re an African-American man from East Baltimore and now you get to do research in Southeast Asia with the rock stars of public health nursing.” But, “It’s not home. Los Angeles isn’t home,” adds Dangerfield, who lives in Charles Village. “My grandmother and my parents are still here. I remember that this is home when they call and invite me to dinner after work.”

***

When last we chatted with Brittany Kelly, RN, she was an undergrad thinking about what was next. Leaving East Baltimore was not in the plans. She’d gone away to Benedict College in South Carolina—where she helped steer young girls away from gang violence and studied space effects on astronauts—but was drawn home by a drive to make a difference. “To give back to East Baltimore is very important to me,” Kelly says. “Knowing I can connect with people I grew up with is what I look forward to every day.”

Kelly grew up a few blocks from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, and now lives a few minutes and a world away in Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood. But most days you’ll find her in East Baltimore again, on Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Nelson 4 unit working in pulmonary care and infectious diseases. Or she’ll be in the Behavioral Health Leadership Institute van near the city jail that helps ex-inmates stay free—of drugs and incarceration. Both jobs help Kelly satisfy a fascination with infectious diseases, especially HIV, something she saw too much of growing up. 

It’s “a 360-degree difference” from her work right after graduation at the health suite at Henderson-Hopkins School, a K-8 community partnership in East Baltimore. There, Kelly interacted with students and parents, affecting a healthful change through the community. All of her experiences have broadened Kelly’s scope, pushing her toward research and, she hopes, a PhD. 

Mentor Phyllis Sharps, PhD, RN, FAAN, says Baltimore is lucky to have its hooks in Kelly. “The benefit of having someone who’s from this city, who understands and wants to work in Baltimore, is fabulous,” says Sharps, associate dean for Community and Global Programs. “If we can multiply Brittany a thousand times through scholarships, we’ll be doing a great thing.”

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