Our January 2019 Shero of the Month is Teresa Sullivan of Philadelphia, PA. She is the vice-chair of the PWN-USA Board of Directors. She also is a member of the inaugural class (2017-2018) of PWN-USA Policy Fellows, senior member of the PWN Pennsylvania chapter, and was featured in PWNCares: Living and Loving Well with HIV. Teresa was recently awarded the 2018 Red Ribbon Award from Penn University, which is “the highest honor given to a community advocate living with HIV in Philadelphia.”
According to PWN-USA Executive Director, Naina Khanna, “Teresa is a fierce and loving advocate who always follows through on her commitments and is constantly mentoring others while challenging herself to grow and learn. Her work at Philly FIGHT, especially working with folks who are facing barriers to re-entry, keeps her grounded in the needs of some of the most vulnerable members of our community. As a long time board member of PWN, she has helped us skillfully navigate moments of organizational growth, and always ensures our eyes on are on the prize: accountability to our constituency of 300,000 women living with HIV in the US. From Teresa, I have learned to think more deeply and intentionally about our vision, our values and our work. Also, she’s fun and an absolute delight to be around, with a great sense of humor.”
Teresa works diligently with people living with HIV who are either incarcerated or reentering society. Her decision to focus on this demographic was a deeply personal one, as she was incarcerated while living with HIV and received the wrong antiretroviral treatment. She says, “After almost dying and realizing the prison’s warden and medical staff would not own up to their neglect, I had to advocate to prevent this from happening to anyone else.” Teresa began to speak with social workers, medical providers, and people in jail before their release date to ensure that transition to reentry was a smooth one that would prevent lapses in treatment.
“Advocating for the ACA was to make sure people living with HIV and people of color continued to have health care” is one of the advocacy activities Teresa has found most rewarding. She participated in rallies and other protests along with other PWN-PA members. PWN-USA was protesting #Trumpcare from coast to coast and “our voices were heard all the way to Washington, and we won that fight,” said Teresa.
As for future goals, Teresa is driven by her passion to empower women living with HIV to live their best lives. Through various resources for leadership development, Teresa said the goal is “to provide upward mobility through employment, higher education, health care access, and other resources needed for women living with HIV to live healthy lives.” Teresa also plans to focus on women aging with HIV because “our bodies age differently. These medicines do have an impact on our bodies and I want to look deeper into that. How do we make sure resources are provided to women who are 50+ and living with HIV?”
Teresa has this message for any woman living with HIV: “ PWN-USA is a network of women that is available to women living with HIV to network and provide education through training. When we speak, we speak for people not in the room and advocate for those who are not at the table.”
Check out our other PWN-USA Sheroes of the Month and nominate your own shero here!