We are pleased to announce the formation of the interim Steering Committee for a newly created network of leaders of color working in the HIV movement, HIV Racial Justice Now. Recognizing the necessity of a national voice centralizing racial justice in the HIV movement, the Steering Committee will offer a strategic vision for the new network to ensure an inclusive, intersectional, and revolutionary political analysis.This historic network was founded at a national convening of HIV movement leaders of colors, organized in July 2017 where over 20 leaders from across the country came together.
Interim Steering Committee Members
Maxx Boykin
Maxx is the new Senior Coordinator focusing on The Black AIDS Institute’s policy and advocacy, and mobilization work. At his heart he is an organizer, activist, and believer in we have to be the change we want to see. Before coming to BAI he was the Manager of Organizing at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago along with the Manager of HIV Prevention Justice Alliance. Maxx also is a member of Black Youth Project 100, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leader and is on the steering committee for the Collaboration on Health Equity for Cook County. His organizing ranges from direct action, civic engagement, conscious raising, to coalition building. Originally from the Suburbs of Atlanta, Maxx along with his two sisters were raised by his parents who were raised in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement. He has been an organizer for a wide arrange of issue based, political and union organizing. His first 2 years were in political organizing starting in Savannah Georgia on local campaigns later moving to Virginia to work on four winning campaigns including state senate, Governor and Presidential races. In Illinois he has worked on the Fight for 15 campaign and the Get Covered America Campaign around health insurance before spending almost 3 years at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. There he worked to design train and build both local and national advocate networks centering those living with HIV and black communities to address ending the epidemic from structural barriers. He has always worked in primarily Black and marginalized communities and loves working with his people to make sure they are uplifted and liberated.
Gina Brown
Gina is a Community Organizer with Southern AIDS Coalition. She has worked in the field of HIV for 14 years and has been living with HIV for 22 years. Gina graduated Magna Cum Laude from Southern University at New Orleans, with a Bachelor of Social Work and a minor in History in 2011. She received her Master’s degree in Social Work in 2012. Gina is a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). Gina has served on numerous boards and committees. Gina is a Public Speaker and Community Advocate. She has appeared in many magazines and publications, most recently she was featured in Ebony and Jet magazine. Gina is an Ambassador for the Greater than AIDS Initiative, appearing in the Women, HIV, and Intimate Partner Violence video. Gina truly believes in service work and has made it her life’s mission to help the broader community gain a higher level of health literacy.
Marco Castro-Bojorquez
Marco is an activist-filmmaker who advocates for the civil and human rights of LGBT people and people living with HIV/AIDS as a member of the U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus, and a lead organizer with the coalition of Californians for HIV Criminalization Reform. He is also a senior advisor for Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, MAVEN and Somos Familia, organizations that work with queer youth and their families in the United States. This past year and in response to the success of his latest documentary El Canto del Colibrí (The Hummingbird’s Song) that explores family acceptance and immigration, he co-founded a pilot project in Sinaloa, Mexico named Corazón Abierto (project open heart) that supports family and LGBT acceptance in the region. Marco affirms that while Latinx are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS at alarming rates, they are underrepresented in the HIV/AIDS field. He is working at facilitating the formation of Venas Abiertas (open veins): A Network of Latinx Immigrant People Living with HIV in the U.S. with the hope to fight isolation and create powerful solidarity.
Cecilia Chung
Cecilia is Senior Director of Strategic Projects at Transgender Law Center, is an internationally recognized leader who advocates for HIV/AIDS awareness and access to care, LGBT equality and equity, and human rights. Cecilia has been a vocal advocate for transgender women and people living with HIV. In 2002, she joined the Board of the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center and currently consults with them on an innovative mobile HIV testing project for transgender youth. In 2004, as a founding producer of Trans March, she organized one of the world’s largest annual transgender events which has since been replicated in cities across the U.S. In 2005, she became the first Deputy Director of the Transgender Law Center and is widely credited with shaping the organization’s mission and programs. In 2013, Cecilia was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. In 2015, Cecilia launched Positively Trans, a national, constituents-led project that focus on policy advocacy and leadership development of transgender people living with HIV, especially transgender women of color.
Daniel Driffin
Mr. Daniel Driffin, is the Co-Founder of THRIVE SS, Inc. – a local nonprofit based in Atlanta, GA assisting Black gay, bisexual and same-gender loving men living with HIV achieve better health equity. THRIVE SS provides nontraditional social support for more than 650 Black and men of color, living with HIV in Atlanta and across the nation. Daniel has leadership in providing Rapid Pre/Post HIV Test Counseling and facilitating numerous evidence based interventions (EBIs) such as Many Men, Many Voices (3MV), Defend Yourself (d-up!) and Mpowerment to Young African American men who have sex with men (YAAMSM). Daniel is currently completing coursework towards a Masters of Public Health.
Kenyon Farrow
Kenyon Farrow is a writer and activist. He is a Senior Editor for TheBody.com. Kenyon was formerly the U.S. and Global Health Policy Director for Treatment Action Group (TAG), where he worked to organize campaigns in cities and states to drive to the end of the HIV epidemic. He recently published a qualitative research project exploring the role of community mobilization in the US HIV response in 9 US cities. Kenyon is also the former executive director of Queers for Economic Justice, and has a long track record of community organizing work on criminalization, mass imprisonment, homelessness and HIV issues.
Olivia G. Ford
Olivia has been engaged with HIV-related media since 2007. She has previously held leadership positions with Positive Women's Network - USA, a national advocacy network of women with HIV; and at TheBody.com, a comprehensive Web-based HIV resource where she remains a contributing editor. Olivia has written and edited articles, developed award-winning content, and moderated discussions with community members and professionals on a wide variety of topics, including HIV stigma in media; criminalization and racism; trauma and gender-based violence; health care access in transgender communities; familial homophobia and HIV risk; as well as many aspects of becoming a parent while living with HIV. She has consulted with organizations and programs such as Echoing Ida, InPartnership Consulting, the Women’s Foundation of California, and The Well Project; her work has appeared in Black AIDS Weekly, Positively Aware Magazine, POZ, and TheBody.com, among other outlets. A native Brooklynite, she currently works as a freelance editor and writer, and is based in New Orleans.
Deon Haywood
Deon Haywood is the Executive Director of Women With A Vision, Inc., a New Orleans-based community organization founded in 1991 to improve the lives of marginalized women, their families, and communities by addressing the social conditions that hinder their health and well-being. Since Hurricane Katrina, she has led the organization to a vibrant locally-rooted international network addressing the complex intersection of socio-economic injustices and health disparities. In 2009, Deon oversaw the launch of WWAV’s NO Justice Project, a campaign to combat the sentencing of women and trans* people arrested for street-based sex work under Louisiana’s 203-yr-old “crime against nature” felony-level law. This resulted in a federal judicial ruling and the removal of more than 700 women from the sex offender registry. Deon was also the representative from the U.S. South to the 2013 Frontline Defender’s Dublin.
Mary Hooks
Mary Hooks is a Black, lesbian, feminist, mother and co-director of SONG. Mary joined as a member in 2009 and begin organizing with SONG in 2010. Mary’s commitment to liberation is rooted in her experiences growing up under the impacts of the War on Drugs. Her people are migrants of the Great Migration, factory workers, church folks, Black women, queer and trans people and all people fighting and struggling for the liberation of oppressed people.
Venton C. Jones, Jr.
Venton C. Jones Jr. represents a new generation of national leaders committed to advancing health equity and social justice through effective program planning, leadership development and training. Venton has over a decade of experience working extensively in the areas of non-profit management, program planning, events management, communications, community organizing and development. Since the beginning of his career, Venton has been a tireless advocate on the front lines of advancing effective HIV/AIDS public policy in the United States. Currently, Venton works at the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) in Washington, DC. NBJC is the nation’s leading civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black LGBTQ people. In this role, Venton leads the organization’s health and wellness program portfolio as the Program Officer for LGBT Health and Wellness Initiatives. This Initiative was created in 2014 to address current health crises and disparities in culturally competent wellness programs that target the Black LGBTQ population.
Naina Khanna
A national speaker, trainer, and advocate, Naina Khanna has worked in the HIV field since 2005, following her HIV diagnosis in 2002. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for AIDS United, the National Steering Committee for the US People Living with HIV Caucus, as a member of the Women’s HIV Research Initiative, and served on President Obama’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) from 2010 – 2014. Prior to working in HIV, Naina co-founded and served as National Field Director for the League of Pissed Off Voters, a progressive national organization working to expand participation of young people and communities of color in electoral politics. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Medical Sociology at the University of California – San Francisco.
Johnnie Ray Kornegay III
Johnnie Ray Kornegay III is the Network & Mobilization Director for Counter Narrative Project, and he's also the Founder & Artistic Director of Staticc Art & Life, LLC, an arts company with the mission “delivering beauty to the world.” As an advocate, Johnnie has been involved in HIV and civil rights advocacy for as long as he can remember. In the late-1990s he trained with the American Red Cross in HIV education, and did outreach work for the Chester AIDS Coalition. Johnnie is passionate about blending his experiences into his non-profit work. For Counter Narrative Project he hosts the podcast Counter Point. In 2016, the two public bodies of photographic and video work he exhibited - #BeTheFlame and untitled - included themes dealing with the impact of HIV on Black gay men. In 2017, Johnnie co-curated I AM... - Arts, Activism and HIV, an exhibit about the importance of an artistic response to HIV in the community.
Suraj Madoori
Suraj Madoori is an activist, writer, and Treatment Action Group’s (TAG) U.S. and Global Health Policy Director. TAG is an independent, community-led research and policy think tank fighting for better treatment, a vaccine, and a cure for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis C. Prior to joining TAG, Suraj was the Associate Director of the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA) and National/Federal Policy at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) – managing and organizing a network focused on human rights and social justice issues in the domestic epidemic. The proud son of South Asian Indian immigrants, Suraj is native Chicagoan and currently based in Washington D.C. He also is a steering committee member for Counter Narrative Project and considers himself an unofficial-official PWN'er.
Venita Ray
Venita is an attorney with a passion for social justice, equity and advocacy. As the public policy manager for Legacy Community Health in Houston, Texas, Venita monitors health care policy with a focus on HIV/AIDS and manages an advocacy training program designed by and for people living with HIV called the Positive Organizing Project. Venita is also director of Houston’s ending the epidemic campaign called, END HIV Houston. Venita works with a number of HIV organizations such as the Southern AIDS Strategy Initiative, Southern AIDS Coalition and is on the board of directors of the Positive Women’s Network-USA, Venita is committed to raising awareness about HIV, eliminating stigma and teaching others to advocate for issues that impact the HIV community.
Valerie L. Rochester
Valerie L. Rochester is a longtime public health professional, with more than 25 years of experience providing programmatic, administrative, and technical support services in the public health field. As Vice President of Strategic Grantmaking and Capacity Building for AIDS United, she guides the expansion of the program and fund development portfolio for the organizations.
Arneta Rogers
Arneta Rogers is PWN-USA’s Policy Director. She graduated from UC Hastings College of the Law in May of 2015 and is passionate about working towards social justice and an inclusive reproductive justice movement focused on the intersections of race, class and gender. While at Hastings, she served on the executive boards of the Black Law Students Association and OutLaw. She was the Symposium Editor for the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal where she organized “What’s the ‘G’? Gentrification and the Myth of Fair Housing,” an assessment of the lawyer’s role in the current affordable housing crisis. Her Student Note, How Police Brutality Harms Mothers: Linking Police Violence to the Reproductive Justice Movement, was published in Vol. XII, Issue No. 2 of the same journal. During law school she provided direct legal services as a clerk at the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and supported the policy and legislative advocacy work of the Reproductive Justice Project of the ACLU of Northern California. Prior to attending law school, Arneta advocated for health equity for communities of color at the National Medical Association, organized Oakland youth around issues of sex-trafficking and violence in their communities and served as the Policy Associate for the Women’s Community Clinic in San Francisco. Prior to this role, Arneta was PWN-USA’s Reproductive Justice and HIV Legal Fellow.
Bamby Salcedo
Bamby is a national and international transgender Latina Woman who is pursuing a master’s degree in Latino/a Studies. Bamby is the President and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition, a national organization that focuses on addressing the issues of transgender Latinxs in the US. Bamby is currently developing the Center for Violence Prevention & Transgender Wellness, a multipurpose, multiservice space for transgender people in Los Angeles. Bamby’s remarkable and wide- ranging activist work has brought voice and visibility to not only the trans community, but also to the multiple overlapping communities and issues that her life has touched including migration, HIV, youth, LGBT, incarceration and Latin@ communities. Through her instinctive leadership, she has birthed several organizations that created community where there was none, and advocate for the rights, dignity, and humanity for those who have been without a voice. Bamby’s work as a collaborator and a connector through a variety of organizations reflects her skills in crossing various borders and boundaries and working in the intersection of multiple communities as well as the intersections of multiple issues. Bamby has served and participated in many local, national and international organizations and planning groups. This work mediates intersections of race, gender, sexuality, age, social class, HIV+ status, immigration status and more. Her activist public speaking has ranged from testifying to governmental bodies, human rights and social justice organizations, universities and colleges, demonstrations and rallies, and national and international conferences as featured speaker. Bamby speaks to diverse audiences on many topics and intersecting issues. Bamby has spoken about transgender-related issues, social justice, healthcare, social services, incarceration, immigration and detention as well as professional and economic development for transgender people.
Jennie Smith-Camejo
Jennie Smith-Camejo is Communications Director for Positive Women's Network - USA, where she came in October 2015 from the world of labor, where she provided communications support for a wide variety of organizing, political, social justice and worker contract campaigns. Before working in labor, she spent nine years teaching college and high school. Her work in communications runs the gamut from press outreach to blogging to website and social media maintenance and engagement to training members in messaging to graphic design.
Andrew Spieldenner
Andrew Spieldenner (Ph.D., Howard University, 2009) is Assistant Professor of Communication at California State University - San Marcos. Dr. Spieldenner examines issues of culture and the body in three primary areas: HIV; the LGBTQ community; and health. He is the Research Director of the US implementation of the HIV Stigma Index for GNP+/North America and Chair of the US People Living with HIV Caucus.
Charles Stephens
Charles Stephens is a writer and activist. He is the founder and executive director of the Counter Narrative Project, co- editor of the anthology Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beams Call, and columnist for The Advocate. Charles is a 2015 Rockwood Leadership Institute Fellow for Racial and Gender Justice Leaders in the HIV/AIDS Movement and a 2015 Arcus Leadership Fellow. He has also been a fellow at the CDC Institute for HIV Prevention Leadership and the Black AIDS.
Kiara St. James
Kiara St. James is the Executive Director of New York Transgender Advocacy Group, a trans-led social justice non-profit organization that addresses policies that affect the TGNC community through initiatives such as trainings, speakouts/town halls, and TGNC mental health workshops.
Robert Suttle
Robert is the Assistant Director of The Sero Project, a network of people living with HIV and allies fighting for freedom from stigma and injustice. Upon his release in January 2011, Robert has become engaged in anti-criminalization advocacy work. He was convicted under Louisiana’s HIV-specific criminal statute after accepting a plea bargain and served six months in a Louisiana prison for HIV non-disclosure to a former partner, with whom he had a contentious relationship. Robert is featured in the short film HIV is Not a Crime, has traveled abroad sharing his story, currently serves as board co-chair of the North American regional affiliate of the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+NA), and remains active with the Positive Justice Project and HIV Justice Network. Prior to joining Sero in March 2012, Robert previously worked with young African American men who have sex with men as a case manager and prevention specialist at the Philadelphia Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. He has been living with HIV for 14 years.
Marvell Terry
Marvell L. Terry, II was raised in Memphis, Tennessee and Founder of The Red Door Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization focused on improving the health outcomes of Black LGBTQ men in Memphis and Southeast region of the United States. He currently resides in Washington, D.C. where he is the first HIV & AIDS Project Manager for the Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve LGBTQ equality. Marvell has been living with HIV since 2007 and shares his journey through social media and other outlets to help erase Stigma. Since 2009, Marvell has leadership in providing Rapid HIV Testing and Counseling, program coordination, evaluation and community mobilization. Marvell has been voluntarily active in roles both locally, regionally and nationally. Marvell currently serves as an Organizing Member of the Young Black Gay Leadership Initiative. The Young Black Gay Men’s Leadership Initiative (YBGLI) is a national movement of young Black men addressing issues disproportionately affecting its peers, with a particular focus on HIV prevention, care and treatment and a member of the AVAC PxRoar Program. Marvell's work has received numerous awards and honors. In 2014, he was named one of the National Black Justice Coalition’s (NBJC) 100 Black LGBTQ Leaders to Watch, one of Mused Magazine’s “Game Changers,” and one of POZ Magazine’s “POZ 100” leaders in the fight against HIV & AIDS. Marvell's previous honors include Memphis Flyer’s annual publication of the “Top 20 Under 30” (2013) making a positive impact on the city of Memphis, and the Shelby County Government’s Light of Hope Award (2012). Marvell attended The University of Memphis and work has been published in the Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice“Prevalence and Correlates of HIV risk behaviors among Homeless Adults in a Southern City” (Volume 7, Issue 1, Spring 2014).
Aimée Thorne-Thomsen
Aimée is the Vice President for Strategic Partnerships at Advocates for Youth, where she oversees and coordinates the development, implementation, and evaluation of Advocates' strategic partnerships with youth activists and colleague organizations in allied social justice movements. She also oversees the Youth Organizing and Mobilization Team and the Policy Team. Prior to joining the staff at Advocates, she served as the Interim Executive Director for the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and the Executive Director of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP). She sits on the Board of Directors for SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and Mobilize the Immigrant Vote and the Oral Contraceptives Over The Counter (OCs OTC) Working Group Steering Committee. Aimee was previously a Public Voices Fellow with the Op-ed Project. She has spoken around the country at venues including the NOW National Conference, Netroots Nation, Center for American Progress, and Facing Race, and her writing and blogs have appeared on Women's e-News, Daily Kos, Feministing, Feministe, and Rewire among others. Aimée earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and a Master of Public Administration from Baruch College, City University of New York.
Lisa Diane White
Lisa Diane White, MPH is the Deputy Director at SisterLove Incorporated whose mission is to eradicate the impact of HIV and sexual and reproductive oppressions upon all women and their communities in the US and around the world. She has over 27 years of experience in Black Women’s Health issues and other health education programs and services. Lisa Diane began her activism with the National Black Women’s Health Project where “self-help” and “empowerment through wellness” continue to influence the foundation of her mission. Lisa Diane is an accomplished and recognized speaker, facilitator, trainer and consultant, who expertly intersects many social justice issues, including feminism, women’s health and rights, reproductive justice, lesbian intimate partner violence, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ, intergenerational relationships, and human rights. She is also a founding board member of ZAMI-National Organization of Black Lesbians Aging (NOBLA) - where Lesbians 40 and over are working through a social justice framework to increase visibility and positive aging while fighting against ageism.