Two Women with HIV Join Obama’s Pool of Top HIV Advisors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Olivia Ford – [email protected] – 347.553.5174 September 4, 2014 – Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN-USA) congratulates two of our members, Gina Brown of New Orleans and Grissel Granados of Los Angeles, on their recent appointments to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). PACHA is the premier federal advisory body on the HIV epidemic, and includes a diversity of stakeholders in the HIV field among its roughly two dozen members. Brown, Granados and other incoming PACHA members are being sworn in today in Washington, DC. “As a member of PACHA, I hope to keep women a vital part of the conversation,” says Brown, a social worker and member of PWN-USA’s Board of Directors who is currently pursuing her second Master’s degree, in Public Policy. Brown brings 12 years of experience on the HIV community’s frontlines – as a case manager, primarily in a Ryan White Part D-funded program working with women, young people and families, as well as a leader in a number of regional and national planning bodies. “I also bring 20 years of being an HIV-positive woman,” Brown adds; “I am looking forward to this exciting new chapter in my journey!” Granados brings a unique perspective as one of the youngest appointees to the Council, a champion for recognition of youth concerns in HIV policy, and an HIV and STI testing coordinator at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “My approach to HIV prevention is influenced by a sex positive lens, social determinants of health, and social justice for disenfranchised communities,” she says; “I am excited to do work at a national level, and I look forward to learning from other seasoned activists.” “It’s exciting to see more women of color living with HIV coming onto the Council, and they have great expertise to bring,” says PACHA member Cecilia Chung, a PWNer and Chair of the US People Living with HIV Caucus. “We are proud of Grissel and Gina, and know that they will represent the community of people living with and impacted by HIV well,” says Naina Khanna, Executive Director of PWN-USA and a member of PACHA from 2010-2014. “We look forward to supporting their fierce advocacy on the Council.” “I welcome them both, as colleagues and advocates,” says Rev. Vanessa Sharp (Cephas), a sitting PACHA member, longtime HIV survivor and advocate, of Granados and Brown. “Together, along with all of the other new and current members of PACHA, we are agents of change! We have much work to do to stay the course and accomplish the goals set before us.”