Summary The purpose of this award is to provide research and training support for Christopher Balthazar, a Black and gay-identified predoctoral graduate student who wants to obtain a career as a community-health implementation science researcher. This learning experience will afford him with the opportunity to be fully involved in all aspects of scientific inquiry including, the planning, implementation, analysis and dissemination phases of research and will ultimately provide him with the skills necessary to further his career contributing to the body of science. Mr. Balthazar will seek to increase competence in both quantitative and qualitative data analysis and will learn to conduct research that contributes to the implementation science literature. As part of his dissertation, Mr. Balthazar will conduct focus groups exploring implementation strategies of interest for the TransPrEP intervention, the parent award intervention that is being developed and assessed for preliminary efficacy and acceptability among transgender participants. Increased competence in qualitative methods will be achieved through conducting focus groups and through regular meetings with mentors. Mr. Balthazar will also increase his quantitative analysis skills by adding an implementation questionnaire to the parent grant’s existing quantitative survey. He will later conduct quantitative analysis of the survey responses while being mentored by an epidemiologist and biostatistician. Additionally, the findings from the focus groups and surveys will be used to inform future research including his application for a K01 or F32 award. Mr. Balthazar will also write and submit two manuscripts as first author and will present study information at two national conferences.