Contributors  Edd Lee is Director of Education & Outreach for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), in New York City. He grew up in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota, where he was involved with groups like the American Cancer Society, The Queer Street Patrol, the Dim Sum Club and other various health and human rights organizations. Most recently, Edd was Associate Director of Prevention Services for the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center in San Francisco. Visit www.avac.org. In “Children’s Research—A Mom’s Perspective,” Eva Janzen advocates for the freedom and power of parents to ask questions and talk about their own and their children’s care decisions so that they all have as much control as possible in living with HIV. Janzen was the co-chair of the Pediatric  Community Advisory Board (CAB) at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago from 1996, when the CAB was formed, until August 2003, and remains active. In July 2000 she began a four-year term as a member of the Pediatric Community Constituency Group (PCCG), a national committee of the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (PACTG). She was part of the PACTG South Africa Site Preparation Team in January 2003. In connection with her work on the PCCG and CAB, Eva has participated in a Community Training on Ethics in Research. Eva is also currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. She has a B.A. with an emphasis in criminal justice and served 10 years as a paralegal before her HIV diagnosis. She enjoys drawing and painting and most recently, she had the pleasure of seeing her son graduate from high school.
Matt Sharp, Director of Treatment Education for TPAN, writes about a few of his many clinical trial experiences in “Going to Extremes to Stay Alive.” He has a 10-year history of writing about AIDS for publications such as the Bay Area Reporter, American Foundation for AIDS Research Global Link, the newsletter of the AIDS Community Research Initiative of  America, and Positively Aware, including the activist voice of the Annual HIV Drug Guide. He became involved in AIDS activism volunteering with ACT UP Golden Gate and served on five local community advisory boards for AIDS clinical research. He worked at Healing Alternatives Foundation (San Francisco’s AIDS buyers club), first as a volunteer and later becoming the director. He then helped to coordinate one of the first peer-based HIV treatment training programs funded through the Ryan White Care Act, at the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center in that city. At TPAN, he oversees all education, support, treatment and prevention programs, including the Treatment Education Advocacy Management (TEAM) programs and client services such as support groups, the Positive Buddy program, medical clinic and needle exchange. In 2001 he moved to Chicago to be with his partner.  William Strain discusses many of the reasons African Americans and Latinos do not join clinical trials or access care in “Who Are We Hurting?” William works as Health Policy Analyst for the Los Angeles County Office of AIDS Programs and Policy. He began working in HIV as a treatment advocate at AIDS Project Los Angeles. Over the last 10 years, he has been involved with the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), the Black AIDS Institute, the National Minority AIDS Council and the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research to promote HIV prevention education, testing, care and treatment issues and research advocacy. He is currently one of two representatives of the ACTG’s Community Constituency Group (CCG) on the network’s Executive Committee.
Charles Clifton has been associated with TPAN since 1996 when he first moved to Chicago to pursue graduate studies at the University of Chicago. He has served as Editor of PA for the past four years and as Executive Director of Test Positive Aware Network since 2002. In Chicago, he serves as co-chair of the Public Policy Committee with the Service Providers Council of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, a member of the Chicago HIV Prevention and Planning Group (HPPG), and a founding member of MOCHA (Men of Color HIV/AIDS)  Collaboration. On a national level, Clifton is serving a one-year term as Treasurer on the Steering Committee of the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition, on the community program committee for the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections and conference co-chair of the North American AIDS Treatment Action Forum (NATAF). Charles has an undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University (1993) and Masters Degrees from Dartmouth College (1995) and the University of Chicago (2002). |
