Blue Ribbon Panel
The momentum to bring an end to HIV is coalescing, we’re asking everyone to commit in writing to ending the epidemic. Will you sign the Declaration to END AIDS in America? A Blue Ribbon Panel will draft the treatise. The Declaration will crystallize our values and beliefs on how to take the science of Treatment as Prevention (TasP), High Impact Prevention (HIP), and Combination Prevention and make it work at a community level. It will challenge us to use the Affordable Care Act and the Ryan White Care Act to provide essential services for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) so that our grandchildren will have an AIDS free generation. This oath provides an aspirational set of principles to guide our movement and the nation. It will put the leadership and the perspective of PLWHA upfront, and be committed to decreasing new HIV infections while highlighting the continued need for a vaccine and a cure.
The official signing of the Declaration will occur at this year’s Summit to End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic. The Summit will be September 29-30 in Las Vegas, just prior to the United States Conference on AIDS. The document will be open for everyone to sign and commit to ending the epidemic.
The declaration will not be a laundry list of needs, instead it will focus on four points:
Promote PLWHA leadership in efforts to increase health care engagement and treatment
- Eliminate new HIV infections
- Reduce stigma, discrimination, and social injustices which increase HIV vulnerability and health disparities
- Maintain strong commitment to finding a vaccine and a cure
The Declaration requires money, in-kind donations, human resources and commitment. A successful outcome depends upon planning, cooperation and a vision to make it real. It will not happen overnight, but imagine when we are successful.
Dr. Julio Montaner will Chair the panel. Dr. Montaner is widely regarded as one of the fathers of TasP. His cutting edge work regarding advocacy and implementation of TasP has brought us to this moment in history. Now we must take the science and implement it at a community level.
Please see all of them below:
Chair
Julio Montaner, MD, FRCPC, FCCP
BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
Members
Bertrand Audoin
International AIDS Society
Jeff Bachar
Western North Carolina AIDS Project
Nancy Bernstein
National AIDS Housing Coalition
Don Blanchon
Whiteman Walker Health
Scott Campbell
Elton John AIDS Foundation
Robert Carroll
Association of Nurses in AIDS Care
Kevin Cathcart
Lambda Legal
Guillermo Chacon
Latino Commission on AIDS
Tommy Chesbro
HIV+ Activist
Cyndee Clay
Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive
Chris Collins
amfAR
Masen Davis
Transgender Law Center
Oscar De La O
Bienestar
John Duran
HIV+ Elected Official
West Hollywood City Council
Jamal Edwards
Howard Brown Health Center
Bill Farrand
Test Positive Aware Network
Ingrid Floyd
Iris House
Robert Greenwald
Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation
Harvard Law School
Neil Giuliano
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Kathie Heirs
AIDS Alabama
Marjorie Hill
Gay Men’s Health Crisis
Regan Hoffman
HIV+ Magazine Editor
POZ Magazine
Jody Huckaby
PFLAG National (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)
Rebecca Issacs
Equality Federation
Lorri Jean
LA Gay & Lesbian Center
Loretta Jennings
Outreach Inc.
Mark Johnson
Brotherhood, Inc.
Monica Johnson
HIV+ Executive Director
HEROES
Ronald Johnson
HIV+ Activist
AIDS United
Wilbur Jordan, MD
Los Angeles, CA
Michael Kaplan
HIV+ Executive Director
Cascade AIDS Project
Paul Kawata
National Minority AIDS Council
Mara Keisling
National Center for Transgender Equality
Reverend Joyce Turner Keller
Aspirations
Kate Kendell
National Center For Lesbian Rights
Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks
National Black Justice Coalition
Jeff Levi
Trust for America’s Health
Lance Toma
Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center
Marsha Martin
Urban Coalition for HIV/AIDS Prevention Services
Terry McGovern
Ford Foundation
Hernan Molina
West Hollywood City Council
David Munar
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
Kathy O’Brien
Hyacinth AIDS Foundation
Gregory Pappas, MD, PhD
HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration
DC Department of Health
Mario Perez
Los Angeles Office of AIDS Programs and Policy
Alvan Quamina
AIDS Project of the East Bay
Patrick Reynolds
The House That Wisdom Built
Valerie Rochester
Black Women’s Health Imperative
Therese Rodriguez
Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS
Michael Ruppal
The AIDS Institute
Randy Russell
Lifelong AIDS Alliance
Bamby Salcedo
HIV+ Trans Activist
Los Angeles Children’s Hospital
Eric Sawyer
HIV+ Activist
UNAIDS
Julie Scofield
National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors
Pernessa Seele
The Balm in Gilead
Ron Simmons
Us Helping Us
William Smith
National Coalition of STD Directors
Terry Stone
CenterLink
Adam Tenner
Metro Teen AIDS
Dan Tietz
AIDS Community Research Initiative of America
Carole Treston
AIDS Alliance for Children Youth and Families
Calvin Twoguns
Liberty Research Group
Evelyn Ullah
Broward County Health Department
Modesto Tico Valle
Center on Halsted
Dana Van Gorder
Project Inform
Steven Wakefield
HIV Vaccine Trials Network
Andrea Weddle
HIV Medicine Association
Phill Wilson
HIV+ Executive Director
The Black AIDS Institute
A. Toni Young
Community Health Education Group
Jose Zuniga
International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care
We can end this epidemic, but its going to take all of us—working together. If you want to have input into the Declaration, please contact Kali Lindsey klindsey@nmac.org. More information about the Summit To END HIV/AIDS in America will be released in August.
Yours in the struggle,
Paul Kawata
Executive Director