J. Maurice McCants-Pearsall is the Director of Government Relations at ViiV Healthcare. McCants-Pearsall previously served as the Director of HIV and Health Equity at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). While at HRC, he secured $3.2 million dollars in funding to launch the nation’s first community-based in-home HIV testing program, developed the nation’s first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Health Center Directory, established a leadership council for minority-led and serving community-based organizations (CBO), designed a youth advocacy program that utilized storytelling to mobilize communities disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS, and launched an expansive multimedia campaign to dismantle HIV- related stigma in Black and Latinx communities. With additional funding from ViiV Healthcare, he developed CommUNITY Voices. A series of national forums for Black gay and bisexual men in partnership with Native Son.
During the 115 th United States Congress (2019), McCants-Pearsall was listed in the congressional record as a subject matter expert in the introduction of then Senator Kamala Harris’ PrEP Access and Coverage Act. The legislation would require all public and private health insurance plans to cover the drug—as well as all required tests and follow-up visits—without a copay, just as the Affordable Care Act requires insurance to cover contraception and other preventive services.
Prior to joining HRC, McCants-Pearsall lead HIV prevention for communities of color at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health-AIDS Activities Coordinating Office. While at PHPD, he was an active member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine-Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), Ryan White Planning Council, American Public Health Association (APHA), and the Urban Coalition for HIV/AIDS Prevention Services (UCHAPS). He is a former board member of the Public Health Young Leaders Association, New York Urban League Young Professionals and 100 Black Men of Greater Washington DC.
McCants-Pearsall earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Services from Audrey Cohen College, a Master of Business Administration from Metropolitan College-University of London, a post- baccalaureate from Howard University School of Law, and a certification in Community Health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
McCants-Pearsall lives in Washington, D.C., with his husband Kenneth and two sons.