Category: Newsletters

Learn About the USCA Scholarship Process in April 11 Webinar

Interested in a scholarship to attend the US Conference on AIDS this year? Join us for a webinar on April 11 to explain the process, including application deadlines, scholar responsibilities, and important dates. Whether you’re interested in an Option A or B scholarship, an HIV 50+ Strong & Health scholarship, or a Social Media Fellowship, this webinar is for you.
Register now!

Welcome Marissa Miller to the NMAC Family
NMAC is thrilled to welcome Marissa Miller to our family. As a
Program Coordinator, Marissa works in our Leadership Pipeline program, helping to train new leaders in the fight against HIV.  A native of Indiana, Marissa has been an active voice for the transgender community for years in Indiana and Chicago, where she worked at Howard Brown Health.
Marissa shared some of her thoughts about her work here at NMAC.

Join Us for a Webinar on Multimorbidity and HIV+ Older Adults
Join us for “Why Are Older Adults with HIV at Increased Risk for Multimorbidity?,” a webinar from our Treatment division, on Friday, April 6, at 3:00 PM with national expert on HIV and aging, Dr. Stephen Karpiak. As people living with HIV live longer, healthcare providers are spending less time managing HIV-related issues and more time managing age-associated illnesses. This webinar will explore this topic.
Register now!

We’re Hiring!
NMAC is hiring! If you’d like to come work with us, please check out our latest job opportunities.

Would you consider applying to be part of NMAC’s Community Advisory Panels? This is a way too long recruitment letter to talk about our grand experiment. Applications are due March 23.. This newsletter explains NMAC’s vision and strategy to end the HIV epidemic.

NMAC leads with race to end the HIV epidemic in America.

We do it by urgently fighting for health equity and racial justice via our continued commitment to build leaders of color, our focused role within the HIV community on race, and its impact on HIV care and prevention, and by our survival when so many other agencies have closed their doors. In 1987 we started with a commitment to building leaders of color with the skills, connections, and savvy to fight. Today, NMAC continues to build leaders and ask them to focus on race and its impacts on HIV care, treatment, and prevention. NMAC does not do anti-racism work. There are many organizations with more experience and qualifications. To be effective, anti-racism work has to focus on white people. NMAC builds the skills and tells the stories of people of color.

In 2014-15, NMAC’s updated strategic plan changed our name, mission, and vision. During this time, America also saw the rise of the Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and MeToo movements. Like these causes, NMAC fights for a world that is fair and equitable; however, our fight is focused/limited to ending the HIV epidemic in America. We are not here to end racism. We are here to examine how race impacts HIV care, treatment, and prevention. The majority of Americans living with HIV are people of color, yet 74 percent of the people on PrEP are white. This inequity is why NMAC fights for comprehensive biomedical HIV prevention for all communities highly impacted by HIV.

There are many ways to lead with race. NMAC believes that building the skills of leaders of color, standing up within the HIV movement, and surviving the difficult years is how NMAC leads with race. Will you join our grand experiment?  Online applications are due March 23 to be on NMAC’s new Community Advisory Panels (CAP).

This is a real program that needs real commitments. Your input will influence the workshops, plenaries, and scholarship decisions for both USCA and the Summit.

I’m going to stop before I lose you. An extended version of the letter can be found here.  Thank you for your consideration.

Yours in the struggle,

Paul Kawata
(202)  277-2777
Executive Director

March is Women’s History Month!
NMAC is focusing on all Women and HIV during Women’s History Month in March. The story of women in the HIV epidemic is often overlooked. We want to make sure that all women’s stories are told.
This month, we’ll feature women’s voices telling their stories of living with HIV, advocating for their communities, and living their best lives.

NMAC’s Leadership Institute Returns! 
NMAC is bringing back its Executive Director Leadership Institute on Wednesday, September5, the day prior to the start of USCA. This year’s meeting will focus on How to Survive During Difficult Political Times. The Institute is for Executive Directors and HIV and STD Health Department Directors. 

You MUST be registered for USCA to register for the Leadership Institute.
For more information and to register for the Institute, visit the USCA website.

Join 1st USCA Webinar: “How to Submit an Abstract” March 7th!
The deadline to submit an abstract for the US Conference on AIDS is April 6. That can be a confusing process, but NMAC is here to help!
Join us on Wednesday, March 7, for our first USCA 2018 webinar “How to Submit an Abstract. This free webinar will walk you through the entire submission process and give you a chance to ask any questions you may have.

Women’s History Month Community Spotlight Webinar March 21st
NMAC’s Community Spotlight Series continues March 21 at 3:00 PM EST with a webinar on Women and HIV, featuring Gina Brown, Community Organizer for the Southern AIDS Coalition. More details to come!

Register now!

The Summit is Coming to L.A., Dec. 3-4!

The third annual Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit will be held Dec. 3-4  at the JW Marriott Los Angeles in downtown Los Angeles, California. Registration for the Summit is officially open!

NMAC believes biomedical HIV prevention tools like PrEP, PEP, Treatment as Prevention (TasP), and U=U create pathways to ending the epidemic. We are very excited to return to LA. The Summit is partnering with the Los Angeles County Division of HIV and STD Programs. For the first time, we will have a local host committee. Their job is to highlight how Southern California is working to end the epidemic.

For further information about the Summit please visit: www.biomedicalhivsummit.org. NMAC thanks Gilead for recommitting their support of this important meeting.

Space is Limited for Our Black History Month Webinar Feb 21!

Join NMAC and the Black AIDS Institute for a webinar for Black History Month on Feb. 21 at 3:00 PM EST. We are thrilled to welcome Leisha McKinley-Beach to talk about advocacy and awareness of HIV from Black leadership from the very beginning of the epidemic.

This webinar is the first in NMAC’s Community Spotlight webinar series (link) to celebrate and spotlight communities that are often invisible or overlooked due to issues of race, gender, or gender identity – and to make sure they and their challenges with HIV are seen and heard. Each month our Spotlight will highlight NMAC’s constituents.  March will focus on Women, April on Youth, May on Asian/Pacific Islanders, June is Pride, October on the Latinx community, and November on Native Americans. Register NOW!

Questions About the 2018 Elections? Join Us for a Facebook Live Event for Answers

Join NMAC’s Policy team for a Facebook Live event on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 2:00 PM EST on the 2018 midterm elections. To attend please visit us at facebook.com/NMACCommunity.

The ability to end HIV is real. Science allows us to treat HIV effectively and prevent it with biomedical tools. The life expectancy of people with HIV is almost equal to those not infected with HIV. Unfortunately, that is not the case for communities of color who continue to be disproportionally impacted by HIV. We will never end the epidemic if these health disparities are not addressed.

We need political will and real leadership to scale up access to treatment and biomedical prevention in all communities highly impacted by HIV. As we head into this year’s elections, hear from NMAC’s policy team on how to prepare your agency for this critical midterm election and get some tips on what you can and can’t do as a 501C3.

Keep up With NMAC

There’s a lot going on at NMAC. Keep up to date with our online calendar.

Join NMAC’s Constituent Advisory Panels and Make A Difference

Constituent Advisory Panels (CAPs) are a new initiative to better connect with key communities. Based on concerns raised at USCA and the Summit, NMAC is putting together four CAPs to increase our key connections.

The initial tasks of the CAPs will be to advise NMAC on workshops, institutes, plenaries, and scholarship decisions for the 2018 USCA and Summit. While the CAPs will work with all of NMAC, their main priority is our conferences. We are looking for leaders who work collaboratively and play well with others.

For more information and to apply for CAP membership, visit our website.

Questions About USCA? Join One of Our Webinars!

The United States Conference on AIDS isn’t until September but there are a lot of important deadlines before then. One of the first is submitting abstracts for consideration. That can be a confusing process, but NMAC is here to help!

Join us on Wednesday, March 7, for our first USCA 2018 webinar “How to Submit an Abstract.”  This free webinar will walk you through the entire submission process and give you a chance to ask any questions you may have. To register for the webinar click here.

NMAC will host additional webinars on USCA 2018, so watch this space for more information on them.

Constituent Spotlight: Queen Hatcher-Johnson

From time to time, we want to share the inspiring stories of some of the people who are taking leadership roles in the fight against HIV with the help of NMAC. This week, our Communications Director Chip Lewis brings you the story of transgender non-conforming leader Queen Hatcher-Johnson.

Living with HIV for more than two decades isn’t keeping Queen Hatcher-Johnson down. She’s now living her best life.
“HIV gave me a new birth with a new purpose to live and not just exist,” said Queen. “My life has changed for the good. I’m more honest and loyal than ever. It has opened my eyes to being healthy and staying healthy and educating others on the importance of being healthy.”

Read more of Queen’s story on our website: here

Keep Up With NMAC

Spring is on its way – and NMAC’s events keep growing. Keep up to date with our online calendar.