Louise B. Vincent, MPH, MS

Louise is an activist and educator in North Carolina whose work and expertise in drug user health, social, and criminal justice reform have driven the expansion and acceptance of harm reduction in North Carolina and the Southern US. She has worked as a harm reduction consultant specializing in women’s health, drug policy reform, and the meaningful engagement of people who use drugs.

She currently serve as the Executive Director for North Carolina Survivors’ Union and is on the leadership team for the national Urban Survivors Union, a growing alliance of drug user unions made up of over nineteen drug user networks located across the US. The leadership team is made up of eight national leaders in the drug user movement, all with expertise in drug-user led research and discovery.

She assisted in the development and implementation of North Carolina's first harm reduction, hepatitis education, testing, and linkage-to-care program and is a North Carolina certified HIV and Hepatitis C Counselor. Louise has been at the forefront of the harm reduction response to illicit drug use in North Carolina and is committed to preventing blood-borne virus transmission and drug-related deaths and improving the health of people who use drugs.
Her research focuses on risk behaviors associated with infection drug use and co-occurring morbidity and mortality among injection drug users, with special interests in women engaged in substance use and preventing violence against women who use drugs. She is enthusiastic about contributing her expertise to the proposed project by overseeing the implementation of activities at NCSU and ensuring that the study take into account the perspectives of directly impacted people.

Louise earned a BA in Sociology from Greensboro College in Greensboro, North Carolina, an MPH from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and an MS in Counseling Psychology from Wake Forest University.