Shawn Pleasants

Shawn Pleasants is an independent advocate for unhoused people in Los Angeles. A former banker and entrepreneur with an economics degree from Yale, he lived unhoused in downtown Los Angeles with his husband for 10 years. In 2020, they were able to procure housing, and Mr. Pleasants is now on numerous boards and advisory committees; co-chair of the Los Angele Homeless Services Authority Lived Experience Advisory Board; Lafayette Park A Bridge Home Advisory Council; Ktown For All; the Legal Needs Assessment for People Living with HIV-AIDS Community Advisory Committee; and the Los Angeles Center for Aids Research Community Advisory Board. Mr. Pleasants joined the UCLA-CDU Center For AIDS Research in February 2022. Mr. Pleasants has been featured in news stories on CNN, KTLA, Spectrum News, the Los Angeles Times, and interviewed on KCRW, KCCP, LAist, and many others. Mr. Pleasants has taken the things that once held him down and used them to lift him up in the areas of HIV research, homelessness, and substance use disorder.

“My voice matters in research because I speak for those who no longer have a voice. My voice matters in research because I want the end of the epidemic to have a little bit of me in it. My voice matters in research because I matter!”