Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Conference Schedule Bios
09/06/2012
Conference Bios
Daryl Atkinson
Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ)
Daryl Atkinson is a staff attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) focusing on criminal justice reform issues. Daryl received a B.A. in Political Science from Benedict College, Columbia, SC and a J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minneapolis, MN. Prior to coming to SCSJ, Daryl was a staff attorney at the North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services where he co-managed the Collateral Consequence Assessment Tool (C-CAT). C-CAT is an online searchable database that allows the user to identify the civil disabilities triggered by North Carolina arrests, indictments and convictions. In 1996, Daryl pled guilty to a non-violent drug crime and served 40 months in prison. He considers himself a casualty of America’s ill-conceived and immoral “War on Drugs”. Since his release from prison in 2000, he has become a champion for formerly incarcerated people and criminal justice reform. He is a founding member of the North Carolina Second Chance Alliance, a burgeoning statewide coalition of advocacy organizations, service providers, faith-based organizations and community leaders that have come together to achieve the safe and successful reintegration of adults and juveniles returning home from incarceration. Moreover, Daryl served on a subcommittee of Governor Beverly Perdue’s Task Force to Stop Repeat Offenders. Most notably, Daryl and the Durham Second Chance Alliance led the first successful Ban the Box campaign in North Carolina, which resulted in the City of Durham adopting an administrative policy that removed the question about criminal convictions from the city employment application.
Leilani Attilio
North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)
Leilani Attilio hails from Philadelphia, PA. She is a summer intern at NCHRC. She served as an Army Nurse Corp Officer for five years and completed two deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as a critical care nurse. She recently completed a Masters of Public Health with a focus in Hispanic and border health at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Asha Bandele
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)
Asha Bandele joined the DPA in April 2005, a few months after the historic implementation of the first reforms to New York’s draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws. She directs the Advocacy Grants program, an initiative that funds organizations dedicated to reforming drug policy through education and activism. In this capacity, she works with and learns from an incredible array of drug policy reformers across the United States. A former Columbia University Revson Fellow who earned her B.A. at The New School and her M.F.A. at Bennington College, Bandele has spent much of her career documenting issues of social concern through her work as journalist. She has published a wide range of stories in outlets as diverse as The New York Times, Family Circle, Essence and Vibe, among others. Bandele is the author of four books including the award-winning memoir, The Prisoner’s Wife, and recently finished her fifth, another memoir about raising a child who has an incarcerated parent.
Greg Bautista
Georgia Department of Public Health
Greg Bautista serves as the Project Coordinator for the Georgia HIV Behavioral Surveillance (GHBS) System. The Georgia Department of Public Health has a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to implement GHBS activities as part of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) System. Operating on a three-year cycle, the focus of this study rotates each year among the following three populations: men who have sex with men, persons who use injection drugs and heterosexual men and women.
Mona Bennett
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Mona Bennett has no letters behind her name and she has over 17 years of harm reduction experience. She is one of many, many co-founders of the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, Inc. She specializes in Shadetree Counseling and other Shadetree Services.
Eric Brown
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Eric Brown is a member of the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition and has proudly served on their community advisory board.
Katie Burk
Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)
Katie Burk works for the Harm Reduction Coalition and is based in Oakland, California. In her position at HRC she provides technical assistance and support to communities working to establish and/or expand syringe access services. Her commitment to promoting the health and well-being of drug users, homeless and incarcerated individuals, and people living with HIV has spanned direct service in San Francisco HIV prevention and care organizations, execution of a needs assessment survey on release planning practices for diabetic inmates in the King County jail, and as a Program Manager for the Seattle & King County’s Department of Public Health as a part of its Health Care for the Homeless Team. She received her Master’s in Public Health at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.
Yolande Cadore
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)
Yolande has spent the last ten years working with grassroots organizations in New York City. Early in her career, she worked with the Working Families Party as one of their Brooklyn canvassers and later with the nationally known grassroots organizing and advocacy group ACORN as an organizer. Subsequent to her time at ACORN, she spent four years as the Lead Organizer at New York State Tenants and Neighbors, a statewide housing organization. Recognizing the correlation between degraded environments, including poor quality housing and poor health, led Yolande to WE ACT for Environmental Justice where she was the Director of Community Organizing for six years. As Director, she developed the organization’s outreach and advocacy campaigns. Most recently, she has been the National Field Director at The Praxis Project. Yolande understands the idiosyncrasies of disenfranchised and marginalized communities and believes that the strategic alignment of individuals and organizations is an important catalyst to effecting long-term social change.
Tessie Castillo
North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)
Tessie Castillo serves as Harm Reduction Coordinator for the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition. Prior to joining NCHRC, Tessie was an outreach worker for farm workers in Wake County, a case manager for refugees settling in the Triangle area, and a Spanish interpreter for survivors of human trafficking. Tessie enjoys living and working with immigrants. She lives with her husband in Raleigh.
Jeff Cece
Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)
Jeffrey Cece is a criminologist, drug policy analyst, educator and consultant. He received a B.A. from the University of Connecticut and M.S. from Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He has taught nearly 1,000 FSU undergrads, most in his specialty course on Drugs in the Justice System. As a former researcher and analyst in the Florida Governor's Office of Drug Control, he authored Florida's 2009 statewide Drug Control Strategy and the 2007 Methamphetamine Control Strategy. He co-founded FSU’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter in 2005 and currently volunteers as an advisor.
Dee Dee Chamblee
La Gender, Inc.
Ms. Chamblee is Executive Director/Founder of LaGender, Inc., an organization she created 10 years ago to empower Transgender people of Color. During her tenure she instituted a statewide needs assessment for data collection on Trans-people and held the first Southeastern Transgender Wellness Conference in Atlanta, GA. As an advocate her speaking abilities have been an educational resource for Georgia State University, Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospital, where she worked as a peer counselor for the Infectious Disesase Program . She has gained over 20 years experience doing grassroots organizing work. In June 2011 President Obama selected Ms. Chambleeas a “Champion of Change” and her blog about Transgender Equality appeared on the White House Website.
Hadiyah Charles
Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)
Robert Childs
North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)
Robert Childs, MPH has served as NCHRC’s Executive Director since 2009 and was just named one of five people who made a difference in HIV in the USA in 2011 by Thebody.com. In addition to performing executive functions, he is involved in all program activities including service delivery, program design, innovation and evaluation, resource development and organizing. Prior to joining NCHRC, Robert served as a Public Health Operations Manager and Program Director at Positive Health Project in New York City, where he oversaw the syringe exchange, arts programming, law enforcement relations (between drug users, sex workers and law enforcement), harm reduction programs serving drug users and sex workers and led research on the public health effects of people injecting in the public domain. Robert has worked in harm reduction and drug policy reform for over 13 years and is considered an expert on syringe access, harm reduction, law enforcement and drug user interactions, sex work and overdose prevention and has spoken on such at the United Nations, the FDA, New York City Council and the North Carolina, New Hampshire and Oregon Legislatures. Robert is also one of the founders of the Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Network.
Alan Clear
Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)
Allan Clear, Executive Director of Harm Reduction Coalition since late 1995, has been a passionate advocate for social inclusion, self-representation, and social services for drug users, marginalized populations, and people living with HIV since 1990. Under his leadership, Harm Reduction Coalition has become the preeminent US-based organization promoting harm reduction as a mode of working with drug users and noted for its capacity building, national conferences, resource development, and policy work. Mr. Clear was the original Executive Director of Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, one of the five original New York City syringe exchange programs authorized in 1992. He is a member of the North American Syringe Exchange Network and the New York Commission on AIDS. Mr. Clear is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on harm reduction, drug treatment, and drug user rights.
Cheryl Courtney-Evans
Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth, Inc
Cheryl Courtney-Evans, came to Atlanta in 1979. Through years of hardship while here, she found a place with LaGender, Inc., an Atlanta transgender support group, where she received certification as a transgender peer counselor through the United States Conference of Mayors grant program. Convinced there was another, better way to serve the transgender community, she joined the staff of Aniz, Inc. and through this agency was able to co-found TILTT,Inc. (Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth, Inc.) with Minister Lisa News onto facilitate this, becoming the first transgender support & advocacy organization in Atlanta to serve both transgender men and women. Since its inception on September 27, 2007, TILTT achieved incorporation, becoming TILTT, Inc., and has strived to assist transgender individuals in navigating the community at large, addressing those issues that would help them to more fully integrate into that community. TILTT, Inc. has served over 300 transgender individuals,providing moral support and general trans-advocacy. In April, 2009, Ms. Courtney-Evans participated with over 200 transgender individuals, sponsored by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), in Lobby Days on Capital Hill in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress members for passage of the Mathew Shepard/James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act with gender identity included as one of the protected groups, as well as the Employment Non-DiscriminationAct (ENDA). (She was gratified to learn of passage of the former in the House the day following their visit to “The Hill”, feeling their voices had made some impact. The Hate Crimes bill was consequently passed by the Senate and signed by President Obama in October, 2010.) In addition to her duties with TILTT, Inc., Cheryl now facilitates workshops and sensitivity [awareness] trainings, her most notable being with the Audre Lorde Leadership Conference (ZAMI, July, 2009), at the University of Georgia, Athens (March, 2011), where she presented “The Black Transgender Experience in America” (both venues) and AID Atlanta (November, 2011) for its staff. She is a constant supporter of human rights issues, with a focus on the transgender community in this respect.
Ron Crowder
Street Works
Ron Crowder is currently the Executive Director for Street Works. Mr. Crowder’s greatest contributions to the community have been his street outreach services. Since 1994, he has been at the forefront of HIV/AIDS education and street outreach services. He has unselfishly loaned his expertise to agencies that use street outreach in their services locally as well as nationally. Mr. Crowder has received numerous commendations, awards and recognitions for his untiring efforts in HIV/AIDS prevention and education; his most recent was the nation’s most prestigious Community Health Leadership honor — The Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program Award in June of 2005. He also serves as community Co-Chair of the Tennessee Community Planning Group, which is responsible, along with the Tennessee Department of Health, for writing the State’s HIV Prevention Plan. Mr. Crowder has a BBA in Accounting and is certified as an Addiction/AIDS Educator. He also received a certificate of HIV Prevention Leadership Achievement for successful completion of the CDC/ASPH HIV Prevention Institute. Mr. Crowder competed successfully against other HIV Prevention Program Managers across the nation and was accepted as a scholar in this one of a kind Institute funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH).
Nabarun Dasagupta
Project Lazarus and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Nabarun Dasgupta, MPH is a quantitative epidemiologist who studies the medical and use and nonmedical use of prescription opioid pain relievers and heroin. He has worked with and for diverse groups on reducing the adverse consequences of opioid use, including at the WHO, non-profit organizations, local health departments, and the pharmaceutical industry. Nabarun helped create Project Lazarus, an overdose prevention project in rural North Carolina (www.projectlazarus.org). Nabarun did his undergraduate at Princeton University in molecular biology and received a master of public health degree from Yale University in the epidemiology of microbial diseases. He is currently finishing his PhD in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health in Chapel Hill, where his dissertation work is evaluation of community-based opioid overdose prevention interventions.
Kelli Dorsey
Different Avenues for Youth
Kelli Dorsey is the Executive Director of Different Avenues, a membership-based organization in Washington, DC that works with girls, women and transgender people of color who have life experience in the criminal system and/or street economies. She has worked in harm reduction for over 10 years developing and implementing various types of sex work and needle exchange programs.
Jen Earls
North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)
Jen "Crash" Earls works part-time as one of NCHRC’s Law Enforcement Safety Advocates. She is a former Chicago Police officer who recently graduated with a BSN from Duke University. She also holds a BA in Communications from the University of Notre Dame. While serving the City of Chicago, Officer Earls worked on the Gang Team, as a Field Training Officer, on the Targeted Response Unit bicycle patrol and many other roles. Even though she held many positions, she truly loved patrol and interacting with citizens of all stripes and backgrounds. An interest in medicine and health guided Officer Earls' decision to leave the department and pursue a nursing degree. Her passion is harm reduction and officer safety and believes that everyone deserves to work in safe conditions. She is dedicated to educating law enforcement officer's about the dangers of needles and the infectious diseases that officers working the streets might contract. She currently resides in Durham and will soon be an Emergency Room nurse.
Eloise Edmonds
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Narelle Ellendon
Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)
Narelle Ellendon is the Community Mobilization Manager for HRC, which provides national technical assistance and capacity-building services to support the establishment of new syringe access programs and the expansion and enhancement of existing programs, funded through the CDC Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) Services. Prior to this role Narelle was the hepatitis C director at HRC, overseeing the Hepatitis C Harm Reduction Project that worked closely with syringe exchange programs in New York City to provide trainings for staff and participants, advocate for policies and resources and facilitate improved access to hepatitis C related health services. Previously, Narelle worked in Australia as an outreach community health nurse with homeless, drug-using populations and as a registered nurse within correctional facilities.
Whitney Englander
Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)
Whitney O’Neill Englander is the Government Relations Manager for the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national non-profit dedicated to eliminating disparities in the provision of health care and basic human services for individuals, families, and communities negatively impacted by drug use. Ms. Englander mobilized national advocates around health and budget policy at Faces & Voices of Recovery and served Congressman Kurt Schrader in a communications capacity. A graduate of the University of Oregon, Ms. Englander lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and two-year-old son.
Leslie Essien
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Leslie Essien is a native of north Alabama. Leslie began her grass roots community organizing and social justice work in Greensboro, NC. As a four-year resident of Atlanta, GA, she continues to live out her passion for human rights and social justice by volunteering with grass roots organizations in the city of Atlanta. Compassion, justice, service and advocacy are central to her faith. Leslie is a recent graduate of Candler School of Theology, Emory University, where she had the privilege of marrying the academic education with the practical education she gained from working as a volunteer for Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, and serving as a chaplain intern for Central Outreach and Advocacy Center, and intern for Metro State Transitional Center for incarcerated women. In her spare time, Leslie loves to read, listen to R&B and jazz, dance and travel.
Harry Ethridge
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Harry Ethridge, Behavioral Counselor, conducts individual counseling sessions, facilitates group sessions and conducts social events. Mr. Ethridge also conducts HIV counseling testing and linkage to care events. He is certified in Safety Counts and in HIV testing, counseling and linkage to care protocols. Mr. Ethridge completes all evaluation materials. Employed with AHRC since May 2003, has shown exemplary style in managing peer leaders, overseeing case management, and more recently developing the outreach staff. He is able to balance workload, maintain daily interaction with clients and assist with medical provisions. He has extensive experience working with the people who engage in high-risk behaviors, HIV positive men and transitional housing management. Mr. Etheridge has experience in counseling clients through the process of setting goals, reaching them and providing detailed documentation. Mr. Etheridge is very knowledgeable on community resources. Has consulted with universities, community agencies and individuals for AHRC. Mr. Etheridge has been trained and has extensive experience providing Crisis intervention and behavior management, intake assessments and treatment planning. Prior to his employment with AHRC, he managed Men's Transitional Home and was responsible for individual and group counseling, provided recommendation for referrals to community-based organizations for continued treatment, along with writing reports for monthly grant monitoring.
Jay Fisher
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Jay Fisher is a state's attorney, handling post-conviction matters on behalf of the prosecution. He has been involved in numerous murder appeals of both local and national prominence. In his mid-thirties, Jay reached a crossroads in his life where he had to make a decision on his stance regarding the drug war. On the one hand, he held very strong law-and-order personal views, and even applied for federal law enforcement positions with the F.B.I. and D.E.A. However, he also held very strong positions on issues such as government spending, bureaucratic waste and individual liberty. In the end, he opted for liberty, freedom and an end to government intrusion. Jay also represents his state's corrections department in constitutional rights cases. He has witnessed the overcrowding of state prisons with people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. "In my department, we have seven attorneys to handle all the post-conviction litigation generated by 50,000 inmates. Untold numbers of these prisoners are in for drug-only related offenses, eating up taxpayer resources for essentially victimless crimes." Prior to entering law school, Jay worked in public safety as a paramedic and E.M.T. for a large Southeastern city in the United States. He worked closely with drug addicts and victims of drug-related crimes while on the streets. He was also one of the first members nationwide of the Metro Medical Strike Teams, established to respond to mass-casualty, terrorism related events. Besides holding a law degree, Jay also has a master's degree in public administration. Jay completed his undergraduate work at Washington University in St. Louis.
Linda Flores de Leon
New Orleans Trystereo Syringe Distribution
Linda Flores de Leon, originally from New Orleans, LA, moved to NYC in 1997. From 2001- 2007, she worked at Streetwork Project, in both the Midtown and the Lower East Side locations, providing low-threshold, non-judgmental, harm reduction counseling and service provision. She also ran groups and specialized in working with injection drug users (IDUs), focusing on promoting self-respect and dignity through non-judgmental encouragement and education about self-care and safer injection. She has educated IDUs about opiate overdose reversal with Narcan and safer injection techniques to reduce the risks associated with injecting drugs such as viral infections like HIV and HCV, liver disease, bacterial infections and vein damage. From 2008-2011, she worked as a research assistant on a Community Health Care study of young injection drug users in New York City, examining incidences of HCV infection. She is a certified phlebotomist and a certified acudetox practitioner. In 2011, she moved back home to New Orleans and started volunteering with Trystereo Syringe Distrobution and would like to work more on bringing more harm reduction to New Orleans.
Kenneth Glasgow
The Ordinary People Society (TOPS)
Pastor Kenneth Glasgow is the Founder and President of the Ordinary People Society. His direction of TOPS provides rehabilitation to repeat offenders while creating a program that targets the youth before they reach the Criminal Justice System. In addition, Pastor Glasgow has gained the support of the National Leader and other Organizations along with the Alabama Department of Corrections by allowing him to administer TOPS programs in Alabama prisons and jails. He is the Convener and Co-Convener of the National Criminal Justice Coalition, and Co-Chairman of Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People Movement, State Partner for the New Bottom Line Campaign with DPA, Chaplin for the Second Congressional District, and Vice Chairman of Houston County A.D.C. He is instrumental in registering over 40,000 ex-felons to vote in the state of Alabama. He is the first and only one to win a lawsuit were convicted felons keep their voting rights whether incarcerated or not. He has received numerous awards such as: Man of the Year, The Fighter of the Flame Award, and The Lyndon B. Johnson Political Freedom Award. Meanwhile, he has fed over 210,000 people in the past eleven years with Momma Tina’s Mission House. Pastor Glasgow has remained committed to saving souls and ensuring that redemption is in the lives of those who served their debts to society.
Hadley Gustafson
North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)
Hadley Gustafson is an award-winning video activist with an MA in multimedia journalism (documentary storytelling + motion graphics) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She believes journalism is a powerful tool in the fight for human rights and social and environmental justice. Before going to grad school, she had an eight-year career in graphic design. Hadley has worked for NCHRC as a videographer and outreach worker for 1½ years, producing numerous video advocacy projects on sex work, syringe exchange, overdose prevention, harm reduction, HIV and drug policy in the South.
Jill Harris
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)
Jill Harris is managing director of Strategic Initiatives, based in New York. In that capacity she leads the movement-building team to promote drug policy reform around the country in collaboration with national and state-based allies. Previously she served as managing director of public policy at DPA, overseeing the efforts of DPA’s program offices around the country. She has also previously served as DPA’s acting deputy director. Before joining DPA, Harris worked as a political campaign manager and was the early vote director for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign in Ohio. She also spent 13 years as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society in New York City, including two years as the attorney in charge of the Manhattan Criminal Defense Division, the country’s largest public defender office. At the height of the AIDS crisis, she defended a group of ACT UP activists charged with a crime for distributing clean needles to drug users. All the activists were acquitted based on a defense of necessity. Harris is originally from Eugene, Oregon, and is a graduate of Harvard University and the New York University School of Law.
Deon Haywood
Women With A Vision, Inc. (WWAV)
Deon Haywood is a longtime activist in the city of New Orleans with a history of organizing low-income women of color around reproductive health, social justice and women’s rights issues. Deon has served as a board member of the Women’s Health and Justice Initiative Clinic and represented WWAV as a member of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Advocacy Project (SRHAP). As an expert in outreach and community organizing, Deon provides consultation to nonprofits around the United States. Currently, she is spearheading WWAV’s advocacy project, NO Justice, a campaign to address the criminalization of sex workers, largely poor women of color with substance abuse issues, and the excessive and inequitable punitive consequences of conviction under Louisiana’s Solicitation Crime Against Nature laws. Recently, she delivered a keynote address at Desiree Alliance’s Conference, “Working Sex: Power, Practice and Politics,” held July 25 – July 30, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV. She has also been elected to the board of the Louisiana AIDS Advocacy Network.
Ralph Hendrix
University of Alabama
Ralph Hendrix began work in Criminal Justice programming (TASC) in 1977. He was case manager for nine years and was then promoted to program coordinator. His duties consisted of implementing federal and state grant programs and follow-up evaluations for the following: the Drug Use Forecasting project (National Institute of Justice, 1986); Office of Treatment Improvement - SAMSA grant to provide treatment expansion for Birmingham, Alabama; the 1992 RAND evaluation of case management models for felony offenders; and the 1994 Break -the Cycle grant (Office of National Drug Control Policy). In 1996 Hendrix implemented two drug courts, and in 2003 he implemented two adult mental health courts in Birmingham, Alabama. He is currently Program Manager of Jefferson County Community Correction Program, providing services for approximately 1200 felony offenders, including re-entry, prison diversion and alternative sentencing. He serves on a subcommittee of the Alabama Sentencing Commission to determine sentencing standards for new presumptive sentencing guidelines established in legislature in 2012.
Eleanor Hillman
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Helen Hollingsworth
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Helen is a Reverend at St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Decatur, GA.
Art Jackson
Independent
Art Jackson is a respected and innovative community educator of HIV Prevention and Care Services in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Born and raised in Orange, New Jersey, a 20-minute suburb of New York, Art graduated from Orange High School in 1983 and attended Penn State University for three years. Moving to Harlem, New York, Art has witnessed the evolution of HIV/AIDS from its inception to how we are currently living and dealing with this virus today. Since being diagnosed in January 1990, Art has been an avid and dedicated fighter for those living with this disease. Art has always believed in standing up for one’s right not only to live but to live proudly, productively and happily for who they are. Currently employed by Southern Regional-Area Health Education Center as a Retention Care Coordinator & Bridge Counselor, Art works to educate those infected and affected by this virus by finding effective, innovative ways to reach out to various communities living with this virus. Art also works with Community Health Interventions/Operation Sickle Cell as a Community Prevention Coordinator working to increase testing and referrals for those in the community whom may not be positive, to stay negative; those who test positive; or those who are positive but are not in health care. Art graduated in January of 2011 from the National African American MSM Leadership /My Brothers Keeper, Health Executive Approaches to Leadership and Training in HIV (HEALTH) Seminar Program. The HEALTH Seminar is a year-long program that enhances knowledge, skills and abilities for assuming a leadership/management position in the field of health with a particular focus on HIV for the next generation of African American leaders. Art is also Co-Chair of the Cumberland County HIV Task Force and an active Board member of the NC Statewide Community Planning Group. Art also has developed a one-day training called Positive Reflections of Individuals Developing Excellence (PRIDE) that is intended for young men 12-18 years of age to look at choices they make and how they can make more effective decisions for themselves by developing better coping skills. Art continues to search for innovative, positive and productive approaches to eliminating health disparities in minority communities and effectively fight HIV/AIDS.
Reginald Jackson
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Tina Jackson
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Tee was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. In 1997, she received her B.A. in substance abuse counseling from Charles Drew University. Tee has been doing outreach and harm reduction since 1992. She is also a Deacon and has been in the Ministry since 1992. She is a youth counselor for LBGT and has a feed the hungry outreach as well. Tee is also very familiar with addiction; she has been in recovery from crack for 20 years.
Jessica Land
Independent
Jessica Land is a sex workers’ rights activist, and member of the Prostitutes of New York (PONY), Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP), and Desiree Alliance. She worked under Priscilla Alexander at the Foundation for Research on STD’s, an organization founded to address the needs of street-based sex workers in NYC, and later served as Board Chair of SWOP-East in Durham, NC. Jessica authored the “News Shorts” column in $pread Magazine for two years, and has contributed to Boundnotgagged.com since its inception. She currently resides in East Tennessee and spends too much time on the internet, especially Twitter (@JessicaLand).
Nsombi Lambright
Uniteonevoice.org
Nsombi Lambright is the Director of Communications and Development for One Voice, located in Jackson, MS. One Voice is a community training and policy organization committed to raising the voices of the underserved in Mississippi. Nsombi is the former Executive Director of the ACLU of MS. Under her leadership, the ACLU advocated for drug law reform at the local and state level. In 2011, the ACLU released a report called "The Numbers Game: The Vicious Cycle of Incarceration in Mississippi". This report highlighted the misuse of federal funds for drug enforcement work combined with a broken justice system with over-zealous prosecutors, over-worked public defenders and tough-on-crime judges. Nsombi now leads a criminal justice reform project at One Voice to continue to advocate for a reduction in the state's drug convictions and more resources for treatment.
Michelle Lopez
New Orleans Trystereo Syringe Distribution
Samuel A. MacMaster
University of Tennessee
Samuel MacMaster, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, where he teaches graduate courses in substance abuse interventions and research. He has produced three books and over fifty peer-reviewed publications related to substance abuse and/or HIV; and has significant clinical experience with re-entry populations. Dr. MacMaster works with numerous community-based organizations in the design, development and evaluation of services for substance-using populations.
Ronald Martin
North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)
Ronald Martin works part-time as one of NCHRC’s Law Enforcement Safety Advocates. He is a former Detective Sergeant and is a dedicated, committed law enforcement professional with over 20 years of experience in the New York City Police Department (NYPD). At the NYPD, he trained officers to a highly proficient level of community patrol, enforcement and public security. He supervised narcotics teams conducting street level buy-and-sell operations and warrant executions. Furthermore, he managed mid to high-level narcotic cases involving pen wires leading to extensive criminal prosecution. Ronald also consulted directly with the Chief of Police and the Mayor of New York City on issues of internal misconduct. He has also conducted and investigated various criminal offenses while working as a team member in conjunction with the Secret Service, DEA, ATF and FBI. At NCHRC, he advocates for needlestick prevention measures for officers in North Carolina and for more dialogue between drug users, sex workers and law enforcement to create safer communities.
Bill McColl
AIDS United
William D. McColl, Esq., the Political Director of AIDS United, has worked on HIV/AIDS, alcohol and other drug treatment and criminal justice reform issues for over 15 years. He was Director of National Affairs at Drug Policy Alliance and an Executive Director of NAADAC: The Association for Addiction Professionals. A former Missile Combat Crew Member in the Air Force, he became a Captain in the Reserve. He holds a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law, a master’s in International Relations from Troy State University and bachelor’s in Political Science from the University of Michigan.
Jeff McDowell
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Jeffrey McDowell has been Executive Director of the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, Inc. for the past five years. During his tenure at AHRC, Mr. McDowell has assisted in the development and implementation of guidelines & SOPs for the state’s only known syringe exchange program located in Metro Atlanta. Since its inception in 1994, AHRC has served over 4,000 unduplicated intravenous drug users, averaging 350-500 clients monthly. Most recently Mr. McDowell was one of the Chief trainers/consultants for the Center for Disease Control National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS-IDU3) Field Operations Training, sharing “Best practices for maintaining a safe working environment.” Mr. McDowell served as a panelist for Center for Disease Control 30th Anniversary of AIDS Lecture Series. Mr. McDowell was one of approximately 54 Subject Matter Experts from across the country invited by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) to participate as a consultant in developing federal operational guidelines for Health Department funded SSPs (Syringe Service Programs). Since that time McDowell has launched advocacy efforts to address the decriminalization of sterile syringes in Georgia and the expansion of sterile syringe access. McDowell holds BS in Human Services with a minor in addictions, and is a graduate of Kennesaw State University.
Maggie McNeil
Independent
Maggie McNeill received her MLIS from LSU in 1993, but due to economic necessity started working as a stripper in 1997, just before her 31st birthday. Two years later she moved on to escorting, and soon started her own agency. She retired from sex work in 2006, but after a few years began to dabble in activism online, finally beginning her blog The Honest Courtesan in July of 2010. Her primary goal as an activist lies in reaching out to the general public in order to demystify sex work, to debunk the mythology promulgated by those who persecute sex workers, to demonstrate that sex work is not intrinsically different from other kinds of service-oriented work and to show that sex workers as a group are not easily distinguishable from the general population.”
Jim Merrell
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
Jim Merrell has worked in HIV/AIDS policy and advocacy since 2007. He currently works as National Advocacy & Mobilization Manager at AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). In this role, Jim helps to coordinate the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance – a national coalition of individuals and organizations working at the intersection of HIV/AIDS and social justice. Previously, Jim worked as Policy Associate at AFC where he was charged with leading the organization’s statewide grassroots organizing efforts. As resident ‘tech nerd,’ he has helped to integrate new technologies into AFC’s policy work, including electronic advocacy systems, virtual trainings and an ever-expanding list of websites. Jim is a Pisces, loves to sing and holds a B.A. in Political Science from Northwestern University.
Zina Mitchell
Women With A Vision
Zina is a native of New Orleans; she was raised in Treme. For twenty-seven years, Zina’s life was dominated by addiction and survival sex. Connecting with WWAV was a moment that changed her life. Now two-years clean, she is living proof of the work that WWAV does and an inspiration for all of our clients. Zina loves working for WWAV, because she can bring hope to women throughout the city and teach them how to fight for their rights.
Michael Murphee
Southern AIDS Coalition
A lifelong resident of Alabama, Michael is a graduate of Auburn University at Montgomery and the University of Alabama. He received his Master of Social Work degree and is licensed at the LCSW level. Michael brings with him more than 10 years of senior-level HIV/AIDS, mental health and public health experience including agency development, professional and administrative supervision, grant project management, and professional speaking. In addition to his administrative service, he has direct care experience in Social Work, mental health counseling and HIV prevention education. The great majority of Michael’s life has been spent living and serving in rural areas of Alabama. Having grown up in that environment led him to an extra sensitivity to the specific needs and cultural differences that rural communities present. This background was particularly helpful during his leadership at Montgomery AIDS Outreach in Montgomery, Alabama as the agency expanded its HIV specific medical care to rural communities in Southeast and West Alabama.
Shilo Murphy
U District Syringe Exchange
Shilo Murphy is a former homeless person and long-time resident of Seattle's University District. He has worked at the University District needle exchange program for the past 16 years and is a co-founder and executive director of PHRA. Shilo is also a co-founder and president of the Urban Survivors Union. Most importantly, he is a proud drug user.
Taliba Obuya
Project South
Taliba, originally from Houston, is a graduate of Georgia State University. She began her struggle at the grassroots as a young person and has continued to connect human rights and the intersections of all issues to movement-building efforts in the South. She is an experienced grassroots fundraiser and is developing organizing skills on the local, regional and national levels. She has eight years of experience in leadership development work and community organizing, including facilitation, writing, public speaking and strategy development. She is passionate about the South, youth, and marginalized communities; and has a goal to develop strategic analysis that reflects Southern legacy and movement building from the grassroots. She is a national coordinating officer of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and member of SPARK Reproductive Justice Now!'s core team, which organizes around the link of prison and reproductive justice.
Sharmus Outlaw
Desiree Alliance
Sharmus Outlaw is the Co-Director of Desiree Alliance, a social justice, anti-violence organization focused on human rights. She was also an integral member of the community-based team that developed the Move Along Report about policing and violence in Washington, DC. She has been a transgender and HIV advocate for 12 years and has worked extensively in the Washington, DC metro area on a variety of gender rights and anti-violence campaigns.
Perry Parks
North Carolina Cannabis Patients Network
Perry Parks, CSP; US Army Retired (Rockingham, NC), is a professional member of the American Society of Safety Engineers with specialties in both aviation and vehicle safety. He currently serves as President of the North Carolina Cannabis Patients Network (nccpn.org), a non-profit of over 900 members working to pass the NC Medical Cannabis Act. Perry retired with 29 years of military service as a helicopter pilot, including 30 months in Vietnam. He is a disabled veteran (with PTSD and Chronic Pain) and has chosen to treat his disabilities with Cannabis instead of the narcotics he was prescribed. He has chosen to wear his military uniform as a symbol of distress for the veterans who are being denied equal medical treatment for war wounds because of the state in which they live. He also serves on the board of the Veterans for Medical Cannabis (VMCA.org), whose director, Michael Krawitz, effectively worked with the VA to produce the Directive Outlining the Use of Cannabis for Veterans in states with approved state programs, which is currently 17 states. (See: VA Directive 2010-035 and VA Directive 2011-004.) Perry was one of five veterans featured in the documentary “The Good Soldier” that received the EMMY for Long Form Historical Programming (edited by Bill Moyers Journal) at the 2010 News and Documentary Awards. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and other awards and has authored several articles.
Laura Pegram
Women With A Vision
A recent MSW graduate, Laura is currently finishing her MPH while working for WWAV as our Harm Reduction Case Manager. Laura has extensive professional experiences both in New Orleans and abroad. She currently focuses on social/reproductive justice issues, harm reduction policies and community/individual psychosocial health and well-being.
Maressa Pendermon
Unity Fellowship Church
Maressa Pendermon is a Reverend at Unity Fellowship Church, in Atlanta, GA.
Will Perrish
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Sam Peterson
North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)
Sam Peterson is a transgendered performance artist and antique college undergrad whose one-person show "F to M to Octopus" is fundraising this fall for a residency at New York City's 3 Legged Dog Theater in December. His writing has appeared in Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman's seminal "Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation" and The Triangle LGBTQ Monthly. He continues to speak engagingly and candidly about his addiction and recovery — and also the important role government-funded agencies played in saving his life multiple times — for social workers, high-school students, medical students, LGBTQI groups and more. He has performed for a variety of agencies, including the Carolina Women's Center, and was the keynote speaker at UNC-Chapel Hill's "Gender Week." He hopes you'll visit his blog, Thamansam.blogspot.com for updates, and notice that "thamansam" is kind of anagrammatic for "Samantha."
Guy Pujol
Interdenominational Theological Church
Guy Pujol, D.MIN., is currently pursuing a Doctor of Theology in Pastoral Counseling at the Interdenominational Theological Center. He is the former Executive Director of AIDS Alliance for Faith and Health (1998-2009). He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Columbia Theological Seminary. Guy’s work examines the theological and religious barriers to HIV/AIDS prevention and care; his current academic interest explores narrative pastoral theological reflection on HIV/AIDS. As a pastor, pastoral counselor and nonprofit executive, he has been directly involved with nonprofit HIV/AIDS services and AIDS ministries since 1987. Guy is a regular presenter for local AIDS education programs in Atlanta, and travels nationally presenting programs on treatment issues related to HIV/AIDS as well as programs that explore the intersection of faith and health. Guy serves as a North American Advocate for the Global Campaign for Microbicides (GCM) and co-chairs the Theological Study Group on Faith and Health for the Society for Pastoral Theology (SPT).
Megan Ralston
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)
Meghan Ralston is the harm reduction manager for the Drug Policy Alliance. Based in Los Angeles, Ralston’s work since joining DPA in 2006 has included implementing over-the-counter pharmacy syringe sales throughout Los Angeles County; organizing the first major US commemoration of International Overdose Awareness Day; and creating the first-ever Southern California Harm Reduction Summit. She has served as co-chair of both the Los Angeles Overdose Prevention Task Force and the Los Angeles Harm Reduction Collaborative. Prior to joining DPA, she created and ran Street Medicine, a Los Angeles volunteer-driven project to assemble and distribute first aid kits to homeless populations throughout the county. Ralston believes that all people deserve dignity, compassion and respect, whether they use drugs or not.
Daniel Raymond
Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)
Daniel Raymond is the Policy Director for the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national training, capacity-building and advocacy organization focused at the intersection of substance use and public health. His work focuses on advancing policies and programs to address critical issues in the health of substance users, including hepatitis C, HIV, addiction treatment and overdose. In this capacity, he provides analysis, policy insight and technical assistance on the design and implementation of public health strategies to prevent harms associated with substance use. He collaborates with a broad network of community-based organizations (particularly syringe access programs), researchers, health departments, federal officials, national advocacy groups and other stakeholders to achieve these goals. Daniel Raymond also serves as the Chair of the steering committee for the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, and actively participates in numerous other coalitions, including the Injection Drug Users Health Alliance in New York City. He serves on the Policy Advisory Board of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research and as the Consumer Representative to the FDA Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee. He is a frequent presenter at national conferences on a range of topics including hepatitis C prevention, syringe access and drug user health.
Tina Reynolds
Women on the Rise Telling Her Story (WORTH)
Tina Reynolds is the Co-Founder and Chair of Women on the Rise Telling Her Story, an association of formerly and currently incarcerated women who have been empowered by their own experiences while involved in the criminal justice system and beyond. Through mutual support, leadership development, organizing and telling our stories, WORTH transforms the lives of women who have been directly impacted by incarceration and changes public perception and policy. Reynolds has received a Master in Social Work from Hunter College. She is currently an adjunct professor at York, CUNY in the Behavioral Sciences Department teaching the “Impact of Incarceration on Families, Communities and Children”. She has published pieces on the abolition of prisons, the impact of incarceration on women and children, formerly incarcerated women and policy change and is an editor of an anthology “Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States”.
Laura Salm
Fulton County Examiners Office
I have worked as a medical examiner investigator for the past eight years at the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office, and prior to that I worked at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation State Medical Examiner's office for 2 1/2 years in the same capacity. Over the past several years I have volunteered at the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition doing community outreach passing out condoms, IV drug use kits and supplies for basic wound care; developing an Overdose Prevention training program/eduction and training for local law enforcement on how to reduce needlesticks during the course of their day-to-day interactions with the public. I am also an advocate for Good Samaritan Laws in Georgia, as well as the decriminalization of syringe exchange to reduce infectious disease transmission and the sharing of needles between intravenous drug users
Edwin Sanders
Metropolitan Interdenominational Church
The Reverend Edwin C. Sanders, II, is the Senior Servant and Founder of the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville, Tennessee. This congregation has attracted a broad cross-section of people with the mission of being “inclusive of all and alienating to none.” Metropolitan has outreach ministries in the areas of substance abuse, advocacy for children, sexual violence, and harm reduction, and provides services to persons infected with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS through the First Response Center, founded by Rev. Sanders in 1992. He was appointed to the CDC Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention during the Clinton Administration and served five years on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS during the Bush Administration. He is currently involved with the Obama Administration White House Office on AIDS in implementing the National AIDS Strategy. He is a board member of the Drug Policy Alliance and serves as Chair of the HIV Vaccine Trails Network Legacy Project Advisory Group designed to increase the participation of African Americans and Latinos in HIV vaccine studies.
Roxanne Saucier
Open Society Institute (OSI)
Roxanne Saucier is an independent consultant and former program officer with the Open Society Foundations' International Harm Reduction Development Program, where she focuses on efforts to end abuses in the name of drug treatment, as well as efforts to increase access to the overdose antidote Naloxone. Prior to joining OSF, Roxanne worked for an organization that advocates for the rights of refugee and displaced women and young people. She has a master’s degree in public health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from New York University.
Lia Scholl
Independent
Rev. Lia Scholl is a pastor and sex work ally. Having worked with sex workers for more than 10 years, she’s currently on the board of the Red Umbrella Project in New York. She formerly worked at HIPS in Washington, DC and Star Light Ministries, in Birmingham, Alabama. She pastors the Richmond Mennonite Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia. Her new book, I <3 Sex Workers is due out from Chalice Press in November 2012.
Shernell (Toni) Sells
Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC)
Grant Smith
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)
Grant Smith is currently the federal policy coordinator in the office of national affairs and a federal lobbyist working to advance evidence-based drug policies. In recent years, Smith has focused on raising awareness about fatal drug overdose in Congress and building support for federal legislation that would fund overdose prevention efforts. Before joining the organization in 2006, Smith served as a victim services advocate with the federal Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia, completed a one-year legislative internship with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Washington Office for Advocacy, and completed internships with Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of National Affairs and Transform Drug Policy Foundation in the United Kingdom. Smith completed a B.S. in political science with a concentration in criminal justice and congressional politics at American University. A native of Savannah, Georgia, where he was engaged in antiracism activism, Smith was drawn into drug policy reform after learning about the racial disparities inherent in the drug war.
Charles Stephens
AIDS United
Charles Stephens is the Southern Regional Organizer for AIDS United. He is a member of the AVAC PX Roar Research Advocacy Working Group, a member of the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance, and is currently Co-Chair of the Emory University Hope Clinic Community Advisory Board. He has a blog on The Huffington Post, and has also contributed to The Georgia Voice, The Gay and Lesbian Review, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Alternet, and Wiretap. He was also in the anthologies Think Again and If We Have to Take Tomorrow. He has also been a recipient of the Marlon Riggs Social Just Award and the Tony Daniels Community Award.
Chris Taylor
National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD)
Chris Taylor is the Associate Director, Viral Hepatitis for the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. In this role, he provides support and technical assistance to state health department viral hepatitis programs, advocates on their behalf with the Administration, Congress and Federal agencies. He is actively involved in several national hepatitis advocacy coalitions, provided leadership as a chair of the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, and was the founding North American delegate to the World Hepatitis Alliance. Mr. Taylor has over 15 years of experience working in public health on viral hepatitis, HIV, STD, tuberculosis and immunization at the local, state and national level.
Erik Valera
Latino Commission on AIDS
Erik Valera is the Program Director of Latinos in the Deep South at the Latino Commission on AIDS. For the past two decades Mr. Valera has been an advocate for the reduction of health disparities. He has successfully implemented programs in ethnic communities to improve the quality of prevention and care for all those affected. He is a first-generation descendent of Mexican and Cuban parents. Valera earned a BA in Communication Studies with a concentration in Public Relations and Organizational Communications from California State University, Los Angeles. Prior to his arrival at the Commission he was with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill managing operations for community and clinically-based HIV projects within developing communities.
Loftin Wilson
North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)
Loftin Wilson works as Transgender Advocate & Harm Reduction Organizer for the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition. Loftin has been involved in organizing and advocacy work with queer, incarcerated and youth populations in NC for several years. Originally from a small town in central NC, Loftin attended Antioch College.
Margaret Wurth
Human Rights Watch
Margaret Wurth is a consultant for the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. Margaret previously worked for a rural health initiative serving Spanish-speaking communities in North Carolina. At Human Rights Watch, Margaret has conducted research and advocacy on barriers to implementing harm reduction services in North Carolina. For the past year, Margaret has worked in collaboration with groups across the United States on the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution-related crimes in several US cities. Human Rights Watch's findings show the practice limits sex workers' ability to protect themselves and fits into a larger pattern of abuse of both sex workers and transgender women by authorities. Margaret's efforts are now focused on expanding research to include positive models of law enforcement practice and furthering advocacy at the city and state levels. Margaret holds a Master of Public Health from Columbia University and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.
Jon Zibbell
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Dr. Jon E. Zibbell is a health scientist in the Division of Viral Hepatitis at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Zibbell is a medical anthropologist with over 15 years of research and field experience in the areas of drug use and public health. His work has appeared in both academic and professional journals and he contributes regularly to independent media on issues that concern the health and civil rights of people who use drugs.
Stella Zine
Independent
Stella Zine is an American singer-songwriter, sex worker rights activist, blogger, tweeter, Certified Peer Specialist, former sex worker with 15 years full-time experience in sex work, an award-winning stripper, genderqueer and sex-positive feminist performance artist from Georgia. Stella is also a survivor of drug addiction (due to compassionate harm reduction techniques); she now has 16 years clean and sober. Stella is a multi-media cultural activist, based on an understanding that social change starts with culture; in the early 1990’s thru 2000 Stella founded the first Southern Riot Grrrl/Queercore band, Pagan Holiday, which was a multimedia music performance and activist project exploring sex positive topics, such as sex workers rights and gender politics. Hir band brought the politics of sex work and harm reduction to the forefront of discussion in the music media of Atlanta, being in Creative Loafing multiple times. She also interviewed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Southern Voice; was interviewed on all local network television stations; and was the main interviewee in a cover story in Creative Loafing on sex work in Atlanta. Stella is former board member and outreach worker for the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, was an associate for HIRE/COYOTE ATLANTA and was in the Atlanta Lesbian Avengers and ACT UP. She has a 20+ year history of community organizing, with a commitment to sex positive feminism, harm reduction and sex workers’ rights. Stella also is a GA DBHDD certified peer specialist mental heath advocate and recently spent three years in rural Georgia working for the state as a creative arts based peer councilor; while there she created an arts-based support group and curated multiple art shows in the community for rural, indigent, diversely-thinking people that were survivors of Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, GA.
