With over 10 years of experience in community health initiatives, Nickolas Gold-Leighton is committed to making a positive impact on a local and regional level for underserved and BIPOC communities of the Appalachian mountains. Currently, Nickolas serves as the Program Manager at the Mountain Area Health Education Center where he took part in creating the first health equity teaching module on opioid use disorder for medical providers at all levels. Additionally, Nickolas leads a program that connects four rural and underserved counties of Western North Carolina and their regional colleges and universities to train students as public health specialists and campus community peer educators. Nickolas has a B.S. from University of North Carolina-Asheville and a Master’s in Public Health from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He currently serves as a board member on the advisory boards of both UNC Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health and Western Carolina University.