We are proud that our board of directors consists entirely of women living with HIV representing the diverse communities most impacted by the epidemic.

Pat Migliore, Co-Chair

Pat is a founder of the BABES Network in Seattle, Washington, one of the oldest women-serving HIV organizations in the United States. She continues to serve on the Advisory Board of BABES, co-chairs the Seattle Transitional Grant Area Ryan White Planning Council, and is a skilled public speaker, facilitator, organizational development consultant and trainer. Pat is a founding member of the Positive Women’s Network – USA, and has been involved since its inception.
LaTrischa Miles

LaTrischa Miles, BBA, Co-Chair

LaTrischa Miles, BBA, CHW, is the manager of the Peer Treatment Adherence Program at the Kansas City CARE Health Center. She has over 17 years’ experience in HIV services, and she is nationally recognized with expertise in training, supervision, advocacy, treatment adherence and community education.

In her advocacy, Ms. Miles prioritizes HIV decriminalization. On December 8, 2011, Ms. Miles, Positive Justice Project, and the Center for HIV Law & Policy held the first public meeting to discuss HIV decriminalization strategies. She has testified twice–on May 9, 2018, and February 4, 2019–before Missouri’s House Committee on Health and Mental Health to garner support for HB 166 and HB 167, which would update the current HIV laws to reflect modern science. Ms. Miles is a member of Empower Missouri’s HIV Justice Coalition, and she currently serves on its Legislative Committee. On June 9, 2019, Empower Missouri presented Ms. Miles with the Elaine Aber Humanitarian Award in recognition of her steadfast commitment to and advocacy for HIV decriminalization.

Additionally, Ms. Miles has worked with organizations in Florida, Missouri, and Boston, assisting persons living with HIV and AIDS to become Peer Educators. She served as Chair of the Kansas City Ryan White Planning Council, which serves an 11-county area with over 4,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. She also has served on local, regional and national quality management committees to improve efforts for consumers in HIV care and treatment services. She is one of 28 co-founders of the U.S. Positive Women’s Network (PWN) and is a current Board Co-Chair. Ms. Miles is founder and President of GRACE of Greater Kansas City, a Women’s monthly support group for women of faith with HIV. In 2015, Ms. Miles received the Martin Luther King, Jr. “Keeping the Dream Alive” Award in Medicine/Health Care from the American Business Women’s Association.

Ms. Miles’s hobbies include reading and running, both half-marathons and 5Ks. She is a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 6, and she enjoys spending time with her family.

Bré Anne Rivera, Vice Chair

Bré Anne Rivera is the former Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Trans Sistas of Color Project – Detroit. She serves on the board of PWN-USA, is a former National Advisory Board member of Positively Trans, and is an ambassador for Greater Than AIDS.

Nicole S, Secretary

At the age of 30, while in school for computer engineering, Nicole was diagnosed HIV positive. Being diagnosed with HIV inspired Nicole to become more involved in the HIV community, particularly addressing issues that plague women, infants and children. Nicole was elected chair of the Ryan White Part D Michigan Community Advisory Board in 2008. As chair of the CAB, she has been selected to be the regional representative for the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trial Network (IMPAACT). She was also selected to be a part of the AIDS Alliance Consumer Leadership Corps Training Program and appointed by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to represent the community on the Southeastern Michigan HIV/AIDS Planning Council.

In addition, Nicole founded the PWN-USA Detroit Chapter in 2011. Nicole plans on returning to school to pursue a degree in Public Policy and Law and her ultimate goal is to become a member of the United States Senate. Nicole believes no dream is untouchable.

Tana Pradia, Treasurer

Tana Pradia is a mother of three children, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. She has been living with HIV since 1999. She almost died from TB, having a T-cell count of 14 and a viral load she describes as “out of control.” After being given a second chance, Tana became a patient mentor at Thomas Street Health Center. She began her advocacy work with a Project LEAP class, a training course offered by the Ryan White Planning Council (RWPC). She was appointed Secretary of the RWPC in 2019, and she now chairs it. Tana initially participated in the Positive Organizing Project to learn how to advocate, and she has been one of the mentors for the last five years. Tana is one of the co-founders of the Positive Women’s Network–Greater Houston Area Chapter, now the Texas Chapter, which she currently co-chairs. She is a graduate of the 2018–2019 PWN–USA Policy Fellowship.

Tana is one of trainers for the AIDS United POP grant that was awarded to the Texas Chapter. She is also the secretary of the Texans Living with HIV Network. Today, Tana is doing things she truly loves and accredits her work to maintaining her sobriety.

grissel granados

Grissel Granados

Grissel is Program Manager for HIV Prevention Services at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She works primarily with young gay and bisexual men and transgender youth of color. Locally, she co-chairs the LA County Commission on HIV and was a community co-chair for the Los Angeles County HIV/AIDS Strategy. She served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS for three years until she stepped down due to the non-responsive and oppressive administration. Grissel is a Mexican immigrant and has been living with HIV since infancy. She co-directed and co-produced We’re Still Here, a documentary depicting the stories of the first generation of people born with HIV who are now adults. When she’s not doing HIV work Grissel enjoys spending time with her two cats and binge watching TV shows.

Kathleen Griffith

Kat Griffith is a current Graduate student at Illinois State University and hopes to graduate in the spring of 2014 with a Masters in Social Work. Kat has served on several committees, including being the past Chair of her local Client Advisory Board, the inaugural two years of Illinois Alliance for Sound AIDS Policy, has been with the Positive Women’s Network since 2009 as a Steering Committee member, a Policy Co-chair and a Strategic Communications Action Team Member, and now a Board member of PWN-USA. Kat also currently sits on the Curriculum Advisory Committee for the National Network to End Domestic Violence as a representative of PWN-USA.

Kat was diagnosed in 1991 while still in college. Since then, Kat has owned her own business, and returned to school. She is focused on the intersectionality of the HIV epidemic, while highlighting that hope and knowledge are the only ways to pave our future as women living with HIV.

Chunnika Hodges

Chunnika became involved in HIV advocacy in 2006; she started as a member of the Ryan White Part D Community Advisory Board for Southeastern Michigan. In 2008, she was elected Chair where she, along with a group of dedicated women from all backgrounds, made recommendations for policy changes, prevention, and educational programming to increase resources/funding for addressing the total health and well-being of women, children, and families residing in the metropolitan Detroit area.

In February 2017, she was appointed to the Southeastern Michigan HIV/AIDS Council (SEMHAC) for the City of Detroit HIV/AIDS Planning Council. Shortly after her appointment to SEMHAC, she was elected Co-Chair of its newly formed Committee of Integrated Planning Care and its long-standing Committee of Finance. In May 2017, she was selected as a participant for NMAC Building Leaders of Color (BLOC) Regional Training. In January 2018, she accepted the role of State Lead for Positive Women’s Network–USA Michigan. In this role, she is the conduit to the HIV community in Michigan. In 2020, she co-founded For the Love of H.E.R., a bi-monthly podcast exploring the lives of Black women and girls through an intersectional lens and featuring interviews with phenomenal women impacting the community.

One of Chunnika’s charges is to educate, mobilize, and empower leaders—including elected officials & clergy—to meet the challenge of fighting health disparities in their communities. Her mission is to break the cycle of stigma by promoting education and awareness of HIV, dispelling HIV myths and misinformation, sharing her story of life after diagnosis, and encouraging people to believe that there is life after diagnosis!

Lisa Johnson-Lett

Lisa Johnson-Lett is an entrusted Living Well peer supporter, mentor, educator, navigator, linkage-to-care Network Treatment Adherence and Prevention Specialist at the Living Well Outpatient Center (LWOC)- under AIDS Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama. She currently serves on the following planning bodies: Positive Leadership Council (PLC), AIDS Alabama; Patient Advisory Board (PAB), UAB 1917 Clinic; Clinic Host- UAB 1917 Clinic; and Positive Women Network (PWN)-USA . Recent accomplishments are as follows: acceptance as active member for Alabama Consumer Advisory Board (ACAB); guest speaker for HIV Update with KC Vick in Montgomery Alabama on November 18, 2016; AIDSWatch 2016; Speaker for Advocacy Awareness Day- Montgomery, Alabama; published article relating to HIV & Stigma- PWN; published article relating to HIV & Treatment- POZ Focus.  Previously serving 10 Years in the United States Armed Forces holding positions as Public Speaker and Public Announcer for Awardees at diverse ceremonies as well as retirement ceremonies for colonels and sergeant majors.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Professional Studies (BPS)- Human Services from the Audrey Cohen School of Human Services and Education and has an Associate Degrees in human services as well as speech communication from Gadsden State Community College. In collaboration with AIDS Alabama, UAB’s 1917 Clinic, AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), the United Way and Quarterly Case Management trainings, Lisa is a product of selfless service and advocacy for the HIV Community.

Octavia Y Lewis, MPA

Octavia Y. Lewis, MPA is an activist, advocate, mother and scholar.  She is currently working as a Community Ambassador with AmidaCare. As a Transgender woman of color living with HIV, she understands the intersectionality and nuances of the complexities of her identities and how it correlates with the world around her. While employed at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, she led all Transgender related programing and services providing the youth with transferable skills needed to navigate the systems which are in place to assist them while teaching them to find their voices to advocate for themselves, educating ally’s on what it means to be an ally, and leading through exemplary leadership skills on living one’s authentic life unapologetically.  

Octavia Y. Lewis, MPA holds an Associate in General Studies from Atlanta Metropolitan College, a Bachelors in Business Administration/Marketing from Georgia Gwinnett College, a Master’s in Public Administration/Health Services Management, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Public Policy and Administration at Walden University.  She remains rooted in community issues that plagues the Transgender community through mentorship of other young Transgender youth to one day takes her place in the fight for equality. She is focused on her professional development through scholarly practice and engagement with industry leaders who are willing to not only address the disparities of the disenfranchised and impoverished but are willing to allow them a space to create solutions toward sustainability.

Marnina Miller

Marnina Miller is a Michigan native currently residing in Houston, Texas. This out and proud, Black Queer young woman facilitates trainings on anti-stigmatizing language, effective leadership, sex positivity, and community organizing. She is a 2018 Public Policy Fellow and the Outreach Coordinator for the Greater Area Houston Chapter. Marnina Miller is a Youth Ambassador for Youth Across Borders where she spends time at Montaña de Luz, an orphanage for children living with HIV in Honduras. She is the Co-Chair for the Texans Living with HIV Network, and a graduate of the Inaugural Building Young Leaders of Color (BYLOC) leadership training. She is a feature writer for the international online publication Life and Love with HIV where she is dismantling the stigma of women; developing, maintaining, and pursuing a healthy sex life one blog post at a time.

Sonia Rastogi

Sonia Rastogi is a gender-based violence and public health practitioner grounded in a social justice analysis. Currently, she works with women, girls and communities affected by forced migration, armed conflict and natural disasters. From 2010 to 2013, Sonia coordinated strategic communications on PWN-USA’s staff team. She previously served on the community advisory board for The Well Project and Global Network of People Living with HIV – North America. 

Rica Rodriguez

Rica Rodriguez was diagnosed HIV+ in 1989. Rica began her HIV advocacy career in 2006 after being incarcerated several years prior and struggling with second chance opportunities she vowed to be the voice for HIV+ people who are reentering society and advocate for folks to receive healthcare, housing and over all well-being. 

Rica is currently a Program Specialist in the Promotora de Salud Program at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and in the past has been a medical care manager for several AIDS service organizations and mental health facilities since 2008, as a Promotora she continues to provide outreach rapid testing services and linkage to care in the Denver metro and surrounding areas. 

Rica has been a member of PWN Colorado chapter since 2012 and today She sits on Community Advisory Boards such as Caminemos Juntos, Children’s Human Immunodeficiency Program and Set Free Reentry Programs. 

The mother of two HIV negative children and in a Sero relationship, Rica feels that advocacy and education is crucial for individuals who are HIV- to remain negative and for HIV+ folks to remain healthy and well.