LEADERSHIP

Antionettea etienne*

Minister Antionettea Etienne is a prominent Afro-Caribbean Health Educator, Counselor, and Women’s rights advocate. She leads the Minister of Health & Wellness at Love Alive International Sanctuary of Praise. She has fought for Women’s Rights, within the Correctional system, at state and federal levels, particularly in regards to access to healthcare and gender-specific substance abuse treatment. While at Bedford Hills Correctional facility, she fought for services for women living with AIDS, creating support groups and lobbying the Dept. of Corrections to implement Discharge & Transitional planning to assist women upon their release. She is a member of the New York City Planning council, New York State Prevention Planning Group, former member of NYC Planning Group, former chairperson of Riker’s Island Advisory Board & Consortium. Minister Antionettea is currently the Minister of Health & Wellness for Love Alive International Sanctuary of Praise Church in Manhattan and is on the staff of Iris House.

Yolanda Diaz*

Yolanda has been fighting against HIV/AIDS and advocating for women living with HIV for over 25 years. She is a cofounding member of Positive Women Network-USA and currently serves at the group’s New York City chapter. For eight years, she worked with SMART University, helping self-identified women access HIV treatment, prevention, nutrition and health education services. Her work with high-risk groups across New York City’s five boroughs has earned her numerous honors over the years, including the 2020 Leading Women’s Society Award from SisterLove in 2010. She was recently elected to the U.S. PLHIV Caucus, where she sits on the steering committee. She currently works at Iris House, which offers practical, family-centered services that promote prevention and education while addressing the day-to-day realities of living with HIV/AIDS.

Alfredo González*

Alfredo González is a medical anthropologist who has been an HIV activist since the late 80s. He was a member of the Latino Caucus (LC) and the Act Up Americas committee of ACT UP/NY and a cofounder of Immigrants Fighting AIDS and the Audre Lorde Project, a people of color gay community center in Brooklyn. In his work from ACT UP/NY, Alfredo and his comrades fought successfully for the legal personality of the Comunidad Homosexual Argentina and established one of the first HIV medication recycling program distributing life saving medications in Latin America. As an anthropologist he has worked for the Epidemiology and Psychiatry Departments of Columbia University in research studies on housing and HIV prevention with homeless men. More recently he has worked for Hondureños Contra el SIDA, a Bronx community based organization, in a program to help empower Afrodescendants with HIV in the Atlantic coast of Central America.

Javier Morales*

Javier has been involved in the HIV epidemic since he helped his partner, Sean Strub, found POZ Magazine in 1994. Several years later, he and journalist Gonzalo Aburto founded POZ en Español, with Javier serving as Associate Publisher. He is a founding board member of the SERO Project, a US-based network of people with HIV fighting to end HIV criminalization, mass incarceration, racism and social injustice. He also served on the board of directors of HomoVisiones, the first Spanish-language public access cable television show geared to Spanish-speaking LGBT people and their families. Filmed in Manhattan, HomoVisiones was broadcast in markets across the U.S. and Caribbean.

ARACELIS Quiñones

Aracelis Quinones, a Latina living with HIV for 34 years, is the Coordinator of Poder Latino, an advocacy group of people living with HIV/AIDS. A fearless Community Organizer, she also works at the Latino Commission on AIDS, fighting HIV-related stigma. She is a proud mother and grandmother.