This event took place on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, 12:00 – 2:00 pm PT/3:00 – 5:00 pm ET
Copresented by The Well Project and the National Perinatal HIV Hotline, this annual roundtable geared for providers welcomed anyone with an interest in the topic to the 2022 event. The panel discussion featured medical and legal professionals engaged with supporting parents living with HIV in their infant-feeding journeys, in paired conversation with Black women advocates living with HIV who have navigated those journeys.
View a compilation of all The Well Project's work on breast/chestfeeding and HIV since 2018
Following the webinar, participants will be able to:
- Illuminate the intersection of maternal and infant health and breastfeeding for birthing parents living with HIV.
- Get or provide information to support informed decision making around infant feeding.
- Understand implications for infant providers.
- Understand the history and landscape of research and guidelines (WHO vs US/resource-abundant areas) around breastfeeding and HIV.
Featuring expert panelists:
Allison L. Agwu, MD, ScM, FAAP, FIDSA, is an Associate Professor of pediatric and adult infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her clinical interests include HIV/AIDS and infectious disease. Dr. Agwu provides inpatient and outpatient pediatric infectious diseases consultations and leads the Pediatric Adolescent HIV/AIDS Program. Her overarching research goal is to decipher, address, and minimize disparities in treatment and outcomes for those living with HIV. Toward this goal, she oversees her own independent research program and serves as Principal Investigator of the Johns Hopkins sites of the International Maternal, Pediatric, and Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) Network and the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network (ATN).
Gregg Alleyne, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Medicine and Family, Community & Preventive Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. He is also the Director of Global Health Initiatives with the Department of OB/GYN, Drexel University College of Medicine. Among numerous professional affiliations, he is a member of the Philadelphia Perinatal HIV Transmission Project Expert Panel and Philadelphia MidAtlantic AIDS Education and Training Center.
Ciarra (Ci Ci) Covin, MS, is Program Manager at The Well Project (thewellproject.org). She has been a survivor of HIV for more than a decade, diagnosed at the age of 20 in a small rural town in the southern region of the United States. She has found great strength and healing in using her Master's in Human Services, coupled with raw life experiences, to advocate for those living with HIV. Ci Ci became a blogger for The Well Project's A Girl Like Me in 2018 and a member of its Community Advisory Board in 2020. In her role as Program Manager, she drives implementation of The Well Project programming, including social media, communications, and community-led initiatives.
Alyssa Crawford is from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and was born HIV positive. She is a graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) where she served as the president of the RCP movement, Miss Junior attendant, and the coordinator for FAMU's participation in Condom Nation's international flash mob. Alyssa became an advocate at 19 and has continued to be a liaison in the community. She is currently working as the Outreach Supervisor for the Minority Alliance for Advocating Community Awareness and Action (MAACA), inc and is the Community HIV Advisory Group (CHAG) representative for area 2B. Alyssa gave birth in 2020 and was successful in breastfeeding her child who maintains a negative HIV status.
Catherine Hanssens, JD, is Executive Director and Founder of the Center for HIV Law and Policy has been active in HIV legal and policy issues since 1984. She previously served as AIDS Project Director at Lambda Legal, where she led Lambda's HIV-related litigation and policy work. She also worked with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, where she created and managed one of the first medical-legal partnerships in the country, with on-site HIV legal services in several hospitals and clinics. While a staff attorney at the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate, Catherine successfully litigated the state's first cases on involuntary HIV testing, a class action challenge to segregation and mistreatment of prisoners with HIV in the New Jersey state prison system, and the only federal appeals court case recognizing the right of incarcerated women to funded elective abortions. She also has been a Visiting Clinical Professor at Rutgers University Law School-Newark and Director of the law school's Women and AIDS Clinic.
Antoinette Jones began her work with HIV advocacy in her early 20s, as a Peer Navigator facilitating access to preventative care and treatment for people living with and at risk for HIV. She identifies as a Vertical Women Living with HIV; meaning she has been living with HIV since Birth. Antoinette was called to peer advocacy to combat the isolation many people born with HIV go through due to the lack of awareness. Antoinette has worked with organizations serving black women and people of transgender experience developing programs, advancements in healthcare services, and mentorship/leadership development. Antoinette is the co-executive director of Dandelions, Inc. a nonprofit that centers the development of Verticals (people born with HIV) through mentorship, trauma and healing, and peer to peer interventions.
Judy Levison, MD, MPH, specializes in obstetrics and gynecology and is a Professor of Medicine at Baylor College. Dr. Levison is the physician coordinator of the Harris Health System Women’s Program, which provides care for pregnant individuals living with HIV in Houston, Texas and is a specialty consultant to NCCC clinicians on perinatal HIV. She is a member of the DHHS Panel on Treatment of HIV-Infected Pregnant Women and Prevention of Perinatal HIV Transmission, which provides annual updated recommendations for the care of pregnant persons in the United States.
This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U1OHA30039 (AIDS Education and Training Centers National Clinician Consultation Center) in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded to the University of California, San Francisco.
