A pioneer in the field of gay and lesbian health, Dr. Ball's contributions can be seen in many areas. She is assistant director of the Bimbaum Unit HIV Care Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital as well as an associate professor at Cornell University's Weill Medical College. She publishes a column in The AIDS Reader and has also published articles in many other journals on AIDS and HIV.

She is a co-medical director at Gayhealth.com, the internet's only gay health site, which she helped to found in 1999. She also serves as a medical consultant for gay.com and advocate.com, where she answers questions on lesbian health. It was in this capacity that she realized the need for an "honest," reliable medical site for the gay community. She lives in New York with her partner and two sons.