Troy Hendricks

Health History, Community Resilience & Social Justice

Age 58 · Retired public health nurse and community advocate

I was 17 years old when I first heard the word AIDS, and I had no idea it would shape the next forty years of my life. I became a nurse because of the epidemic — because I watched my community lose people and I couldn't just stand by. I spent 34 years in public health, most of them in HIV/AIDS care and prevention, working in clinics, community centers, and eventually a hospital floor where I knew far too many patients by name. I retired from nursing in 2022, but I have never stopped trying to make sure people understand what happened to us in those years, and how much the people we lost deserve to be remembered.