The Women's Research Initiative on HIV/AIDS (WRI), a program of The Well Project, conducted WRI Virtual 2021: HIV, Women, and Policy in the New Administration on April 6, 2021.
The WRI Virtual 2021 featured a panel of federal experts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), who each provided updates on the agencies efforts and plans around women and HIV. It also featured a panel of policy experts working in advocacy representing the Guttmacher Institute, SisterLove, and PWN-USA, who described what they’re watching for and their advocacy efforts under the new administration.
The meeting included important breakout discussions that addressed what WRI members can do to ensure that women in the US (particularly Black women and other women of color) are appropriately and adequately addressed in the federal HIV research and policy agenda, and how WRI members can support women leaders (especially women living with HIV, Black women, and other women of color).
The meeting delved deeply into the context of the current policy environment, including strengthening racial justice movements, the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, and the new administration’s efforts and commitments in the health, equity, and reproductive rights spaces. Attendees noted that the current environment provides opportunities to fundamentally shift the landscape around women’s health and HIV and forge new pathways toward meaningful progress. As with all WRI meetings, WRI Virtual 2021 also focused on identifying actions that individual WRI members can take to address research and policy gaps related to women and HIV through multidisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration. To learn more, please see the WRI Virtual 2021 Issue Brief: Women and HIV in the Current US Climate: Opportunities and Challenges in Policy and Research.
2021 Virtual WRI Meeting Participants
| Adaora Adimora, MD, MPH* UNC School of Medicine |
Judith D. Auerbach, PhD* University of California San Francisco |
| Dawn Averitt* The Well Project |
Heather Boonstra Guttmacher Institute |
| Gina Brown, RSW Southern AIDS Coalition |
Gina Brown, MD Gilead Sciences |
| Stacy Carrington-Lawrence, PhD NIH Office of AIDS Research |
Vignetta Charles, PhD ETR |
| Cecilia Chung Transgender Law Center |
Jenna Conley* The Well Project |
| Elizabeth Connick, MD University of Arizona |
Ciarra Covin The Well Project |
| Porchia Dees Black AIDS Institute |
Antigone Dempsey, MEd HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau |
| Dazon Dixon Diallo, DHL, MPH SisterLove, Inc. |
Karine Dube, DrPh UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health |
| Olivia Ford The Well Project |
Karen Hoover, MD, MPH CDC |
| Rowena Johnston, PhD amfAR |
Jennifer Kates, PhD* Kaiser Family Foundation |
| Naina Khanna Positive Women's Network |
Amelia Korangy ViiV Healthcare |
| Aryah Lester Transgender Strategy Center |
Edward Machtinger, MD UCSF Women's HIV Program |
| Krista Martel* The Well Project |
Tonia Poteat, PhD, PA-C, MPH University of North Carolina |
| Linda H. Scruggs, MHS* Ribbon |
Kathleen Squires, MD Merck Research Labs |
| Vani Vannappagari, PhD, MPH, MBBS ViiV Healthcare |
Fulvia Veronese, PhD* NIH |
| Celeste Watkins-Hayes, PhD University of Michigan |
Andrea Weddle, MSW HIV Medicine Association |
| Marcus Wilson Johnson & Johnson |
Charles Wira, PhD Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth |
| Carmen Zorilla, MD UPR School of Medicine |
*2021 Advisory Board Member
The virtual WRI 2021 convening received sponsorship support or grants from Gilead, Janssen, Merck, and ViiV Healthcare.
