For general questions about PWN, email us or call (510) 698-3811
For all media inquiries, please email our communications team.

Marnina Miller, Co-Executive Director



(she/her)
marnina(at)pwn-usa.org

Marnina Miller is a highly accomplished Human Rights Activist, Speaker, Trainer, and Social Media Strategist with a profound commitment to fostering positive change in society. Marnina is honored to serve as the Co Executive Director of Positive Women’s Network-USA.

Marnina’s journey with Positive Women’s Network-USA began in 2017 when she joined the local Greater Houston Area Chapter. Marnina completed PWN-USA’s Policy Fellowship in 2018 and has represented them as a Health Not Prisons Collective Advocate. Her commitment deepened as she assumed a vital role on the Board of Directors in 2018, a position she held until her transition to the PWN-USA staff in 2024.

Marnina’s dedication to making a difference extends to her involvement with other prestigious organizations such as The Well Project’s Community Advisory Board and as a Board Member for Youth Across Borders, where she dedicates her time and expertise to Montaña de Luz—an orphanage supporting Children Living with HIV in Honduras. Recognized for her exceptional advocacy work, Marnina is a proud recipient of the Violet Award, celebrating LGBTQ advocates in Texas.

Under her brand “MarninaTheQueen” she harnesses the power of social media to address social injustice and spread awareness of critical issues that impact people living with HIV. With an impressive following of over 100,000 followers and millions of video streams across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, Marnina is a force to be reckoned with in the digital realm.

Her expertise in HIV Activism has garnered significant recognition, leading to features on prominent media outlets such as Vice News, National Public Radio (NPR), and the YouTube Original Series: HIV Disclosure and Dating.



Keiva Lei K. Cadena, Co-Executive Director



(she/her)
keivalei(at)pwn-usa.org

Keiva Lei Cadena is a nationally recognized advocate, activist, speaker, and a Native Hawaiian cultural
practitioner living in Pahoa, Hawaii. She became a member of PWN in 2017 and was a 2021 participant of the R.I.S.E Training of the Trainers Academy. The following year, she joined the R.I.S.E
team as a program facilitator and mentor. Keiva is a steering committee member for the Positively Trans leadership network and represents the Pacific region on the National Native HIV Network. She has worked in HIV navigation, outreach, linkage, and education since 2011. She has been a consultant for many organizations across the United States helping develop programs and services based in harm reduction and transgender inclusion. In 2015, she created the “POP Ohana”, a leadership development network of people living with HIV, across the Hawaiian Islands. Keiva is a frequent lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and San Francisco State University. She has also served on workgroups and advisory boards in the areas of HIV, domestic violence, transgender equity and inclusion, and addiction and recovery. She is currently serving on the CDC / HRSA Advisory Council on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and STI’s. Over the last 13 years, Keiva has received numerous awards and recognitions for her work. In 2023, she was honored by the Hawaii State Department of Health with the Suzanne Richmond-Crumm Award for outstanding contributions to HIV services and care in the state of Hawaii. Prior to joining PWN as the Co-executive Director, Keiva was the Director of Harm Reduction Services at Kumukahi Health + Wellness on the Big Island of Hawaii. She is the first woman of trans experience to hold this type of leadership role in an HIV services organization in that state.



Naina Khanna, Outgoing Co-Executive Director



(she/they)
naina(at)pwn-usa.org


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.



Ieshia Scott, Finance & Operations Manager

(she/her)
ieshia(at)pwn-usa.org


Ieshia Scott is a public and motivational speaker, health educator, mentor, peer, and support group facilitator based in Broward County, Florida. Ieshia became interested in HIV advocacy to help people living with HIV overcome barriers, access services, and find support in others living with HIV after being outed in 2014 publicly on Twitter. Through the support and opportunities made possible from that moment, Ieshia found passion from her lifelong secret. She went on to create and facilitate trainings and content for youth, young adults, and HIV service organizations. Notably; “ABC’s of HIV,” “Dating and Disclosure,” and capacity-building services in client service, program development, program implementation, and community engagement as a consultant.

 

Since 2015, Ieshia has partnered with various organizations and public agencies to bring awareness to HIV/AIDS, uplift, and advocate for women living with HIV seeking sisterhood and support. Former UCF Knight, Ieshia received her Bachelor of Science in Health Services Administration and a Masters in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Management from Nova Southeastern University in August 2022.

Barb Cardell, Program Director



(they/them)
barb(at)pwn-usa.org


Barb Cardell is an educator, activist, and advocate. They have been involved with PWN since joining the Steering Committee in 2009. When PWN created its Board of Directors in 2013, they joined and served as the board chair for 6 years. They stepped down early in 2019 to join PWN staff as the training and technical assistance director.


Engaged in local, statewide, national and global HIV issues and currently serving on the governor-appointed, statewide Colorado Alliance for HIV Prevention and Education, Barb co-founded PWN-USA Colorado, a state-based advocacy group for ALL self-identified women living with HIV. They are a founding member and have served as the vice-chair of the U.S. Persons Living with HIV Caucus, now in an Emeritus role. Barb was the legislative chair of the Colorado Organizations Responding to AIDS (CORA) and led HIV criminalization reform which modernized HIV statutes in Colorado and repealed two criminal statutes that targeted people living with HIV.


They are currently working on grassroots mobilization, electoral organizing, HIV Stigma Index, Denver Principles, collaborating to support a racial justice framework in HIV advocacy, and the People Organizing Positively (POP) Grant in partnership with AIDS United.



Crystal Townsend, Organizing Director

(she/her)
crystal(at)pwn-usa.org


Crystal Townsend is a native of Beaumont, TX who fights for justice and equity, especially related to health and human rights. She has a background in public health and brings experience in community, issue-based, digital, and electoral organizing.


For more than a decade, Crystal has worked to intentionally and systematically support and grow a culture of inclusion, accountability, and anti-racist organizing leadership, particularly within the local HIV response. Crystal has served in many roles including HIV prevention specialist, program manager, and most recently, coordinator of END HIV Houston – a citywide, grassroots coalition focused on ending the HIV epidemic in Houston/Harris County through racial and social justice.


In 2019, Crystal had the privilege of working alongside the fierce leaders of the Positive Women’s Network Greater Houston Area chapter to co-create H-Town Power – the successful electoral organizing campaign that helped educate and mobilize over 150,000 unlikely voters in the historic 2020 Harris County election.


This year, Crystal was one of six lead organizers backed by Houston in Action to join Full Circle Strategies’ Inaugural 2021 Ukombozi Fellowship – a year-long fellowship for BIPOC and aspiring white allies to understand better how to dismantle racially oppressive systems and reshape movements, organizations, and communities.


Additionally, Crystal is a proud board member of The Mahogany Project, Inc., a black, trans-led organization based out of Houston, TX working to reduce social isolation, stigma, and acts of injustice in TQLGB+ communities of color.


As a partner, mother, and someone deeply embedded in her community, Crystal wants her work to uplift the experiences of BIPOC and TGLBQ+ communities to amplify the intersectional nature of our lives through intentional joy, thoughtful organizing, and supporting the shift of narrative power – which shapes the norms and rules by which our society lives. In this work she feels that we can honor our own humanity and serve as a reminder that we live full, beautiful, complex lives, not single issue ones.


Kelly Flannery, Policy Director


(she/they)
kelly(at)pwn-usa.org


Kelly Flannery graduated from New York University School of Law with honors in May 2017. During law school, Kelly was a member of multiple legal clinics, and helped support the National Advocates for Pregnant Women as they challenged a state statute that subjected pregnant women accused of drug use to state-sponsored surveillance, detention, and forced medical intervention. Kelly also served as an intern at the New York Legal Assistance Group’s housing division and the National Institute for Reproductive Health.


After law school, Kelly was the NYU fellow in Human Rights Watch’s women’s rights division. She focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and published a report that documents barriers to cervical cancer-related services and information caused by policies, practices, and racial and socioeconomic inequalities in Alabama.


Prior to law school, Kelly received her bachelor’s degree from Elon University and her master’s degree in philosophy from the New School for Social Research.


Victoria Siciliano, Director of Communications

(she/they/ella)
victoria(at)pwn-usa.org

 




Victoria is an artist, activist, and communicator from Montevideo, Uruguay. Her migration experience to Alabama and its legacy of civil rights struggle contributed heavily to shaping her values and aspirations. She studied English Literature at the State University of New York at Purchase and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her professional background includes a decade of community organizing, communications, and non–profit development. She developed a passion for grassroots storytelling while serving as Communications Coordinator for the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, where she had the privilege of curating a multimedia exhibit featuring the stories of prominent immigrants’ rights activists for the world-renowned Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.


Working for Adelante Alabama Worker Center, she sharpened her political analysis and honed her skills in movement arts (screen-printing, puppet-making, painting, and graphic design) and popular education–fighting side by side with some of the most marginalized communities in Alabama while centering cultural expression, joy, healing, and rebellion. Victoria is thrilled to bring her slew of skills and passions to the PWN team, where she hopes to shine an even brighter light on the incredible, intersectional work being done by women and people of trans experience living with HIV.



Elena Ferguson, Policy Specialist

(she/her)
elena(at)pwn-usa.org


 



Elena Ferguson is a Nashville native and earned her J.D. from Belmont University College of Law in 2020. Throughout her law school career, she served as a legal intern with the Nashville Public Defender’s Office, Juvenile Court of Nashville, and Law for Black Lives. After law school, she served as the If/When/How RJ Fellow at Healthy & Free Tennessee, serving as the lead on their proactive policy agenda.


Throughout her fellowship, she had a particular focus on legislation related to incarceration, pregnancy, and doula access in Tennessee. Elena earned her B.A. in Sociology with an Africana Studies Concentration from the College of the Holy Cross in 2017.


Sallie Thomas, Policy Specialist - Decriminalization

(she/her)
sallie(at)pwn-usa.org

 




Sallie J. Thomas (Howard University School of Law ’21) is a dedicated reproductive justice advocate who focused her academic scholarship, intern, and extern opportunities on addressing issues of the movement. Sallie interned with the District of Columbia Department of Health (DC Health) in their General Counsel office, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and at the National Institute for Reproductive Health.




Prior to law school, Sallie graduated from the State University of New York – College at Old Westbury with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She then went on to graduate from Stony Brook University with her Master’s in Social Work. Sallie worked as a medical social worker for a bit over two years prior to going to law school. Sallie is committed to seeking change for people living with HIV and is excited to join the PWN team!



Antoinette Jones, National Field Organizer

(she/her)
antoinette(at)pwn-usa.org


Antoinette Jones was born and raised in Bronx, NY by way of Northern Virginia before settling in Atlanta, GA. She began her work with HIV advocacy in her early 20s, as a Peer Navigator, facilitating access to preventative care and treatment for people living with and at risk for HIV. She identifies as a Vertical Woman Living with HIV, meaning she has been living with HIV since Birth. Antoinette was called to peer advocacy to combat the isolation many people born with HIV go through due to the lack of awareness.


Antoinette is passionate about building leaders in her community and empowering folks to take charge of their sexual health, wellness, and pleasure. Antoinette has worked with organizations serving Black women and people of transgender experience developing programs, advancements in healthcare services, and mentorship/leadership development. She also works with HIV providers to improve services for PLWHIV. Antoinette is the Co-Executive Director of Dandelions, Inc., a non-profit that centers the development of Verticals (people born with HIV) through mentorship, trauma, healing, and peer-to-peer interventions.

Sarah P., Voter Engagement Program Manager

(she/her)

Sarah is an abolitionist, reproductive justice organizer, public education advocate, and union organizer. Sarah started her career in 2016, organizing fast food workers to demand $15/hr, paid sick leave, and a union. 


Sarah holds the belief that electoral politics will never liberate our communities, but also believes that voting is an act of harm reduction and care for our neighbors. During the 2018 midterms, she led Democratic electoral outreach in a Republican suburb. Through knocking on countless doors and holding deep canvassing conversations, Sarah and her canvassing team flipped 3 red down-ballot seats to blue.


From 2019 to 2021, Sarah worked for Planned Parenthood where she helped to diversify volunteer teams, created new programs for patients to get involved in advocacy, and led multiple mutual aid campaigns. Before leaving Planned Parenthood, she worked alongside the organizing staff to form a union and transform the board of directors. 


During the pandemic, Sarah and a team of high school students lead a menstrual equity program. Together they distributed over $15k worth of menstrual products to young people who were struggling to access them. In 2021, Sarah led a COVID-19 education outreach campaign to decrease disparities in vaccination access in BIPOC communities throughout New Jersey. Sarah and her team of 15 fellows were successful in increasing vaccination rates. Public health has always been a cornerstone in Sarah’s organizing journey. 


You can find Sarah yelling about how important it is to protect and expand abortion access and legal rights. She is someone who has had several abortions, went through the judicial bypass to access abortion, and has been criminalized for seeking abortion care. She is also a mother. Her lived experiences have landed her on the unshakable understanding that advocacy and grassroots organizing is the only way we can preserve and expand bodily autonomy. Those same lived experiences led her to lead educational workshops for young folks on destigmatizing abortion. 



Sarah is rooted in the belief that our best ideas, plans, and strategies arise from learning together, discussing together, building together, and growing together and believes there is abundance in community. She knows the importance of finding your political home, taking to the streets, and showing up for one another. No one is coming to save us, if we don’t fight for the world we deserve, it will never come.


Alex Aphroditus, Communications Assistant

(they/them/elle)
alex(at)pwn-usa.org



Alex is a healer, community organizer, educator, and co-conspirator based on unceded Nipmuc land, in the colonial state of MA. They are Mexican, indígena, 2Spirit, and queer. Alex studied Political Science and graduated
cum laude from the University of Florida in December 2021, while also working several part-time jobs. Although this institution provided the formal credentials, they have been formally and informally taught by countless trans elders, queer artists, Black feminists, Indigenous leaders, and prison abolitionists that shaped their liberatory praxis.

In college, Alex was a queer and trans student activist, serving as president of the pride student union, hosting queer sex education workshops, leading a political engagement task force, and developing the first gender inclusive living and learning community on campus. Their research background includes serving as a lab manager for Dr. Carolyn M. Tucker’s psychology in health disparities team and a research assistant for the WELLS Healing & Research Collective under the mentorship of Dr. Della V. Mosley. They were a co-writer for two APA posters on a sustainable, community-based participatory research program training Black women as community health workers. Additionally, Alex completed a year-long marketing and community organizing internship at the Civic Media Center, a leftist library and alternative media space. Most recently, they worked as a residential advocate for an intimate partner violence emergency shelter, while also developing and facilitating a community-based support group for queer+ survivors.

They aspire to utilize their extensive social media and digital organizing skills to power-build in marginalized communities and subvert colonial systems of oppression. Alex operates from a place of love, honoring their queer and Indigenous ancestors as they fight for a truly liberated future. Outside of work, Alex loves spending time with their partner and cat. They enjoy collecting books, listening to music, watching movies, and curating tattoos.

“It’s revolutionary to connect with love.” -Tourmaline


Maya Arigala, If/When/How Reproductive Justice Fellow

(she/her)
maya(at)pwn-usa.org


 

Maya Arigala graduated from the George Washington University Law School with high honors in May 2023. During law school, she served on GW’s Civil and Human Rights Clinic, where she had the  opportunity to work on ongoing employment discrimination litigation at the D.C. Office of Human Rights. She also served as the founder of the Reproductive Data Privacy Initiative, a project within the Ethical Tech Initiative at GW which hosted events and produced public education materials on reproductive justice and data privacy. As a clerk for The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and the Public Interest Law Project, Maya had the opportunity to work on civil rights advocacy relating to economic, reproductive, and housing justice. Prior to law school, Maya studied comparative literature and postcolonial studies at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.


Grace O. Rutha, National Training and Leadership Development Manager

(she/her)
grace(at)pwn-usa.org



Grace Rutha is an educator, activist, advocate, motivational speaker and community mobilizer.

She has worked in the HIV field since her diagnosis in 1985 when she founded the “AIDS Digest Health Magazine,” “Maisha Save a Breast Annual Dinner Dance Fundraiser” for breast cancer survivors living with HIV, and the “50+ Prime Time TEACH Alumni” for people aging and thriving with HIV.

Grace has 25 years of experience as a journalist and has served as a member of the Philadelphia FIGHT Community Advisory Board (CAB) and Board of Directors (BOD). She became the first community health worker apprentice in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in December 2014, under the 1199C Department of Labor program customized for individuals who have been unemployed for more than six months due to life’s unexpected circumstances. 

She rose through the ranks to become Project TEACH (Treatment Education Activists Combating HIV) coordinator, lead coordinator in the education department, and deputy director of TEACH and Ancillary Programs.

Grace has a passion for women’s advocacy, ending HIV criminalization laws, human rights, writing, networking, and healthcare research and clinical trials. She is a long time member of Positive Women’s Network-USA PA Chapter.

She has a post-graduate diploma in mass communications and journalism and a Bachelor of Arts in English Language, English Literature, and Philosophy from the University of Nairobi; she is also a published author. 

Grace says her life has been highly informed by clinical trials, two of which have given her a magnanimous lease on life. Her dream is to see a world in which the HIV epidemic will not just end but where people living with HIV will thrive, enjoy respect and be free of stigma, access affordable health care and housing as a tool of prevention, and have the tools necessary to make informed choices and decisions through customized healthcare education. She takes these dreams from the foundational belief of the Denver Principles: ‘Nothing About Us Without Us.”


Tatiana Jorio, Voter Engagement Manager

(she/her)
ive(at)pwn-usa.org



Tatiana Jorio was born and raised on the Lower East Side in New York City and now resides in Los Angeles. Tati is an organizer by nature- and began her organizing work in college fighting against rape culture on campus, successfully lead a campaign to bring free menstrual products on campus, serving as the Planned Parenthood Generation Action president at her college, and on Planned Parenthood’s national student leadership cohort. In addition to this, Tati has always been a storyteller advocating for change through filmmaking and acting, she created a documentary about the inequities prevalent at her film school, which went on to become an educational tool at her college and receive praise at various film festivals.

During college, Tati interned on a local city council campaign in the community she was raised in, and her passion for local community organizing flourished. Part of a local leadership of Latina leaders, Tati became a leader in her community- serving on her local community board on the human services, health, education & youth committee as well as the arts subcommittee, and serving as president of her local political club. In addition to this, Tati has worked with various community arts and cultural non profits doing outreach and communications, as well as volunteering with her local elected officials on mutual aid efforts during the height of the pandemic. Tati has been recognized by the New York State Assembly for her community organizing.

Tati will have worked on  21 elections by this fall, serving as campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, field director, strategy consultant and much more on various electoral races from City council, judicial, borough president, issue- based campaigns and more. She has trained and recruited teams of 100+ volunteers, fundraised for candidates, built field strategy, created leadership programs and lead internship programs for youth interested in politics. You can most likely find Tati talking about the importance of local elections and issue- based campaigns in building community power. Tati is most passionate about empowering community leaders with tools and strategies to continue to organize themselves for what they need in their communities. Tati knows that until we are all free- none of us are. Since her time at PWN, Tati has worked on various election cycles helping to design and improve the IVE program election cycle after election cycle. She hopes to continue to see new leadership develop out of the IVE program, and support PWN’s members in continuing to design the campaigns of their wildest dreams.