Partner Organization Staff Named to Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
Several staff members from organizations collaborating with the PEER Center have been appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). The council was established in 1995 to provide policy recommendations on the U.S. Government's response to the AIDS epidemic.
Naina Khanna, Director of Policy and Community Organizing at WORLD, is co-founder the U.S. Positive Women's Network. Also appointed to the council is Dawn Averitt Bridge, founder of The Well Project and a founding member and key advisor to the U.S. Positive Women's Network. WORLD has collaborated with Dawn Averitt Bridge on a number of projects. WORLD is part of the Lotus Project, one of three Peer Education Training Sites that work with the PEER Center.
Naina Khanna also recently received the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Award for her work. Profile and video of Naina Khanna's work on the Ms. Foundation for Women website
The Lotus Project press release announcing the appointment of Naina Khanna and Dawn Averitt Bridge is reprinted below.
Douglas Brooks, Vice President for Health Services at Justice Resource Institute (JRI), was nominated to the council by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. The PEER Center is a collaboration between JRI and the Health & Disability Working Group at Boston University.
The announcement of Douglas Brooks' appointment appeared in the Boston Globe and Bay Windows, among other websites.
The appointments also appeared on the HHS website and on Medical News Today, among other websites.
Congratulations to our colleagues on this opportunity to help shape the nation's HIV/AIDS policy.Contact: Naina Khanna, coordinator, U.S. Positive Women's Network 510-986-0340 ext 316 // nkhanna@womenhiv.org
Two U.S. Positive Women's Network leaders appointed to Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA)
Feb. 1: Today the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) released its list of appointees to the prestigious Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Among them are Naina Khanna, and Dawn Averitt Bridge, two representatives from the U.S. Positive Women's Network (PWN), the only organized national membership body of HIV-positive women, including transgender women.
The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) was first established during the Clinton administration to provide recommendations on the U.S. government's response to the HIV epidemic. Under the Obama administration, PACHA will advise and monitor the progress of the United States' first National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) currently being developed to address the President's three articulated goals: to reduce the number of new HIV infections, increase access to care and improve health outcomes for people living with HIV, and reduce HIV-related health disparities.
The newly formulated PACHA is promising, and markedly different than previous iterations, say HIV/AIDS advocates. "The new Council is diverse, and reflects the changing epidemic. It is made up of long-term HIV practitioners, community experts, and people openly living with HIV committed to HIV prevention grounded in sound science, and to improving the quality of life for HIV-positive people," says Vanessa Johnson, Executive Vice President at the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), and a founding member of the U.S. Positive Women's Network.
"With representatives from the PWN on PACHA, I and others in the movement can rest assured that HIV-positive women will no longer be ignored," said Hadiyah Charles, community organizer at the HIV Law Project's Center for Women & HIV Advocacy.
Dawn Averitt Bridge, founder of The Well Project adds, "We are hopeful that this is a signal of the Administration's commitment to make women, including transgender women, a clear priority in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy."
The PWN also hopes to see visible leadership from the White House on addressing HIV-related stigma; and a clearly articulated role for community involvement in the development and monitoring of the Strategy that reaches beyond PACHA membership.
PACHA members will be sworn in Tuesday, February 2, 2010 in the White House complex, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Information about the PACHA is available at http://www.aids.gov/federal-resources/policies/pacha/
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The U.S. Positive Women's Network (PWN), a project of Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease (WORLD), is a national membership body led by and for HIV-positive women, including transgender women. We work towards a gender-sensitive U.S. HIV response by: 1) Cultivating leadership of HIV-positive women 2) shifting public perception and public will to promote a compassionate response to all people living with HIV 3) analyzing policy and 4) building capacity for collective action among women and HIV advocates. For more information on the U.S. Positive Women's Network please visit: www.womenhiv.org/positivewomen or call 510-986-0340 ext 316.
