Jack Mackenroth, a former contestant on the reality TV program Project Runway, is currently visiting San Francisco for the Academy of Friends' annual Academy Awards Night Gala, representing Living Positive By Design, his national HIV education initiative that is supported by drugmaker Merck.

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The Living Positive by Design campaign, a major sponsor of the gala, seeks to combat the stigma associated with HIV by engaging people in thoughtful conversation about the disease. At the gala, which benefits 12 local Bay Area AIDS service organizations, Mackenroth will unveil a new series of Living Positive by Design video vignettes that he created to garner support for the goals of the program and to provide on-site commentary on the celebrity fashions at the Academy Awards. The gala event is being held on Sunday, February 22, at the Fort Mason Center.

"I am excited to bring Living Positive by Design to San Francisco in partnership with the Academy of Friends, an organization committed to improving the lives of people living with HIV," said Mackenroth in a press release. "Through Living Positive by Design, I have been speaking about my experiences living with HIV for more than 20 years, addressing the stigma still associated with the disease, and highlighting the importance for people living with HIV to have a positive outlook on life while effectively managing their disease."

In addition to Mackenroth, local HIV specialist Lisa Capaldini, MD, of Castro Medical also will be available the weekend of the gala to discuss the current and future landscape of HIV and AIDS treatment and research.

"One of the goals of Living Positive by Design is to educate people living with HIV that taking medications to help reduce the amount of virus in the blood to undetectable levels and helping to restore their immune system must be some of the priorities for today's disease management," Capaldini says in the press release. "In addition to this, with new advancements in HIV treatment, physicians should also factor in the tolerability of treatment regimens."

In 2008, Mackenroth held Living Positive by Design events in Miami/Fort Lauderdale at the 2008 United States Conference on AIDS, in Atlanta at the Atlanta AIDS Walk, and in New York City at Gay Men's Health Crisis's annual Fashion Forward fund-raiser. For more information on Living Positive by Design and participating cities, please visit www.livingpositivebydesign.com.