Dawn Averitt is the founder and a board member of The Well Project, and has had a front-row seat to the evolution of both the HIV epidemic/pandemic and the movement to fight HIV for more than three decades.
As an advocate for social justice for people living with HIV and AIDS, Dawn has developed programs to increase awareness, accelerate testing, provide access to treatment, disseminate information, and expand clinical trials. In 2003, Dawn launched a think tank now called the Women's Research Initiative on HIV/AIDS (WRI) which drives "more, better, faster" research in women and has been responsible for many notable achievements such as facilitating the GRACE Study, building trial network collaborations, guiding US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling decisions, and shaping research and policy priorities at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dawn's numerous board and panel affiliations range from FDA Advisory Panels to several NIH Working Groups. Dawn served as a member of the Perinatal HIV Guidelines Committee from 2007-2012, as well as the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council (OARAC) from 2008-2012. Dawn also served two terms on the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) from 2010-2015 during Barack Obama's administration. She has served on the organizing and planning committees of several important scientific conferences, including the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), the International AIDS Conference, and the National Women and HIV Conference. In addition, Dawn is a founding member and advisor with Positive Women's Network – USA (PWN). She is a fierce advocate for the engagement of women in leadership roles in the HIV arena.
Dawn is a frequent speaker in corporate boardrooms, at national and international conferences, and at major universities. In addition to her TEDx Talk in 2014, Dawn has been featured in the media including CNN International, the CBS Evening News, and many print publications. Dawn is a recipient of several awards, including the Women Leading Global Change award from the World YWCA for her leadership in the HIV and AIDS pandemic; in 2010, Dawn was named one of the top 100 most influential AIDS activists by POZ magazine.
Dawn was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 at 19 years old. In 2000, she completed a 2,167-mile hike of the entire Appalachian Trail to celebrate surviving her first decade living with HIV. More than three decades after her HIV diagnosis, Dawn is the mother of three daughters and lives on a farm in Vermont with her family.
