Krista Martel, Executive Director, The Well Project
Krista Martel joined The Well Project in 2009 and has overseen the redesign and expansion of its online resources and advocacy programs, while exploring the role and impact technology can have in fighting HIV disease and stigma, specifically for women and girls. Krista began working in HIV education and advocacy in 1995, shortly after her sister was diagnosed with HIV. Struck by the amount of stigma attached to the disease, as well as the lack of available resources for women living with HIV at that time, Krista was inspired to focus her career on advocating for women living with HIV, reducing stigma, and providing easy-to-understand and culturally competent information to people living with HIV and their providers. Krista has witnessed the profound impact that access to information and an online network of support can have on the lives of women living with HIV, and their respective communities, and is driven to continually expand this reach and network across the globe. She is also a member of the Community Advisory Group for the CDC’s EMCT Stakeholder and Expert Panels group.
Prior to her work at The Well Project, Krista helped develop and implement several women's peer-based treatment education training programs for women living with HIV in partnership with W.O.R.L.D., assisting in training over 40 teams of women across the US to conduct 'HIV Universities' in their communities. Krista also was the Vice President at Visionary Health Concepts, where she supervised the production of over 40 topical low-literacy educational booklets/comic books in English and Spanish related to HIV and hepatitis.
